Rio to sell China aluminium stake

Rio Tinto plans to sell its 27 percent stake in a Chinese aluminium processing joint venture to its partner Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet , China's third-largest zinc producer said on Tuesday. Rio, which is trying to sell assets to pay off debt, acquired the stake in the joint venture, Nonfemet International (China-Canada-Japan) Aluminum, when it bought Canada-based aluminium group Alcan in 2007. The transaction was "required by Alcan's global industry adjustment," Zhongjin said in a statement in the official China Securities Journal, adding that the value of the deal was $3 million (2 million pounds). Late last year, the Anglo-Australian miner had agreed to sell its half in a Chinese aluminium smelting joint venture to its partner Qingtongxia Aluminium. Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet paid $29.8 million for 50.1 percent in Perilya Mining in Australia. (Reporting by Alfred Cang and Jacqueline Wong)