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Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational metals and mining corporation with headquarters in London, United Kingdom and a management office in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government. Since then, the company has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions to place itself among the world leaders in the production of many commodities, including aluminium, iron ore, copper, uranium, coal, and diamonds. Although primarily focused on extraction of minerals, Rio Tinto also has significant operations in refining, particularly for refining bauxite and iron ore.〔 The company has operations on six continents but is mainly concentrated in Australia and Canada, and owns its mining operations through a complex web of wholly and partly owned subsidiaries.〔 Its head office in the United Kingdom is in the City of Westminster, London, while its Australian head office is in the City of Melbourne.〔"(Contact Us )." Rio Tinto Group. Retrieved 9 April 2010.〕〔"(Suburbs & Postcodes )." City of Melbourne. Retrieved 5 April 2010.〕 Rio Tinto Group is a dual-listed company traded on both the London Stock Exchange where it is a component of the FTSE 100 Index〔 and the Australian Securities Exchange where it is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index.〔 ==Formation== Since antiquity, a site along the Rio Tinto, in the Andalusian Province of Huelva in Spain has been mined for copper, silver, gold, and other minerals.〔 〕 Approximately 3000 BC, Iberians and Tartessians began mining the site, followed by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors. After a period of abandonment, the mines were rediscovered in 1556 and the Spanish government began operating them once again in 1724.〔 However, Spain's mining operations there were inefficient, and the government itself was otherwise distracted by political and financial crises, leading the government to sell the mines in 1873 at a price later determined to be well below actual value.〔 〕 The purchasers of the mine were led by Hugh Matheson's Matheson and Company, which ultimately formed a syndicate consisting of Deutsche Bank (56% ownership), Matheson (24%), and railway firm Clark, Punchard and Company (20%). At an auction held by the Spanish government for sale of the mine on 14 February 1873, the group won with a bid GB£3,680,000 (ESP 92,800,000). The bid also specified that Spain permanently relinquish any right to claim royalties on the mine's production. Following purchase of the mine, the syndicate launched the Rio Tinto Company, registering it on 29 March 1873.〔 At the end of the 1880s, control of the firm was passed to the Rothschild family, who greatly increased the scale of its mining operations.〔''The Rio Tinto Company: an economic history of a leading international mining concern'', Charles E. Harvey (1981), page 188〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rio Tinto Group」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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