Rio Tinto Diamonds announces the opening of its Hong Kong Representative Office

Antwerp, February 24, 2010 - Rio Tinto, one of the world's leading diamond companies, today announced it will be opening a representative office in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Representative Office will join Rio Tinto's diamonds sales and marketing offices in Antwerp, India and the US, to support the marketing of all rough diamonds from Rio Tinto's mines. Rita Maltez has been appointed to the position of China Business Development Manager and will relocate from Antwerp to Hong Kong in April 2010. Rita has been with Rio Tinto since 1999 and brings extensive marketing experience across a number of Rio Tinto products, combined with strong analytical skills and an in-depth involvement in the development of Rio Tinto's emerging markets strategy for diamonds.

Commenting on the opening of the Hong Kong Representative Office, Jean-Marc Lieberherr, General Manager of diamonds sales and marketing said,

"This is a strategic decision that reflects Rio Tinto's long term commitment to the diamond industry and the important role that China will play in this future. We look forward to fostering new relationships as China's development continues."

The role of the Hong Kong Representative Office will be to facilitate the development of a market in China for Rio Tinto's diamond productions, and to support their customers in their activities in China. Rio Tinto will continue to work closely with the Indian diamond industry, developing initiatives targeted at growing domestic demand for diamonds, along with ensuring it is well placed to capture the inevitable recovery in the US market. Newly appointed Global Marketing Manager, Clark McEwen, will work across all three representative offices (Mumbai, US and Hong Kong) to facilitate the marketing activities for these key markets. Rebecca Foerster, manager of the US Representative Office will also take on an advisory role for diamond marketing initiatives in all markets, in addition to her core responsibility for the US market.

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