Melbourne, 3 June 2011

Global miner Rio Tinto said on Friday it would study the possibility of switching iron ore price settlements to Chinese yuan, though it had no current plans to do this.

"For us, it's a complex issue," Rio Tinto iron ore chief Sam Walsh told a business lunch, when asked whether there were any plans to switch to yuan for settling iron ore prices.

"It's certainly something we will be looking at and studying," he added. "We don't have any initial plans," he said, emphasising that having iron ore priced in U.S. dollars was an important hedge for the company.

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