TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The US Federal Trade Commission has cleared Rio Tinto's sale of its Jacobs Ranch coal mine to St Louis-based Arch Coal, the diversified miner announced on Friday.

Rio, which is sellling noncore assets to pay down debt, agreed in March to sell the mine for $761-million in cash.

Earlier this week, Australia's Amcor offered to pay $2,03-billion for most of the remaining units in Rio's Alcan Packaging business, and other transactions announced this year include the sale of Rio's interest in the Ningxia aluminium smelter in China for $125-million, its potash assets and Brazilian iron-ore operations for $1,6-billion and the Alcan Packaging Food Americas unit to Bemis.

Rio Tinto has been under increasing pressure to reduce its debt levels, after buying Canadian aluminium group Alcan in 2007, at the top of the commodity market, for $39-billion, mostly with borrowings.

Earlier this year, the group arranged a landmark $19,5-billion investment by Chinese State-owned metals firm Chinalco, but broke off the deal in June because its own shareholders opposed the transaction.

Rio opted instead for a $15,2-billion rights issue and a cash-saving iron-ore joint venture with larger rival BHP Billiton.

The Jacobs Ranch mine, in Wyoming, shipped 42,1-million tons of coal in 2008.

The mine had approximately 381-million tons of proven and probable reserves at December 31, 2008.

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