miners face funding fears, page-3

And according to today's Australian, RIO thinks investing in nickel is good

Devon Maylie | October 02, 2008

RIO Tinto's head of copper says the miner is looking at opportunities to buy juniors struggling to raise funds.
Bret Clayton, chief executive of copper at Rio Tinto said the company was speaking with some of the juniors it is interested in.

“We are scouring opportunities and looking at several. There are a lot of exciting opportunities out there that we are looking at,” he said at a Global Capital conference in London yesterday.

Mr Clayton added that some areas of interest were uranium and nickel.

“We are looking to expand current (uranium) operations that we have,” he said, citing the company’s interest in getting involved with the global climate change initiatives.

Rio’s (ASX: RIO) copper chief also said that nickel was a good business to invest in, adding that Rio Tinto was interested in developing that part of the company's assets.