News: RIO Rio Tinto CEO meets top executives at new Chinese ore-buying company

SYDNEY, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The chief executive of global mining firm Rio Tinto (RIO) has met with top executives at the new Chinese state-owned agency created with an aim of centralising the country's iron ore purchases.

Beijing created the China Mineral Resources Group in August, with registered capital of 20 billion yuan ($3 billion). The move was seen as Beijing's effort to gain more clout with suppliers like Rio, BHP Group (BHP) , Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) , Vale VALE3.SA and others over pricing.

Rio's CEO Jakob Stausholm and chief commercial officer Alf Barrios held a video meeting with the senior management of the Group on Sept. 1, the company said in a statement in Mandarin on its Chinese website on Monday.

"Rio Tinto Group is very honoured to have the opportunity to become a strategic partner with China Minerals, and work together to deepen comprehensive cooperation in various fields and achieve win-win development," Stausholm said in the statement.

Yao Lin, Chairman of China Minerals said the group was willing to establish a strategic partnership with Rio and to work on win-win and sustainable supply chain system to develop China's steel industry.

China is exposed to international prices of iron ore as it must import nearly 80% of its annual consumption of about 1.2 billion tonnes of the steelmaking raw material.