October 18: News in pics
An employee talks to a visitor at the reception desk of the Rio Tinto Limited Shanghai Representative Office in Shanghai.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto ditched plans to form the world's biggest iron-ore joint venture, in a victory for steel makers and a move that could prompt both miners to step up competing expansion plans.
The deal's long-expected demise marks the second failed attempt in three years by BHP CEO Marius Kloppers to buy into Rio's superior iron ore assets and strengthens the hand of steel mills, which had feared the pair would gain too much pricing control.
Monday's announcement also leaves BHP focusing squarely on a $39 billion hostile bid for fertiliser group Potash Corp, no longer distracted by the complex $116 billion marriage of the two miners' mammoth Australian iron ore operations.
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