MELBOURNE (Reuters) -- Miner Rio Tinto scrapped a planned $19.5 billion tie-up with China's Chinalco struck at the height of a global financial crisis, turning instead to an iron ore joint venture with rival BHP Billiton and a share sale to slash its debts.
The collapse of the Chinalco deal, put together in February in a bid to halve Rio's $38 billion of debt, leaves the world's biggest steel making nation vulnerable to just two suppliers -- a Rio/BHP combination and Brazil's Vale -- controlling 70% of global iron ore trade.
Shares in Rio jumped as much as 13% to a 7-month high, while BHP rose 10%, as investors welcomed an alternative route to resolving Rio's big debt burden.
