Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton will cooperate in mining up to 2 billion tons of iron ore in Australia.

Rio Tinto and BHP announced an agreement on January 5th to jointly mine up to 200 million tons of iron ore at the border of two existing mine sites in the Pilbara region of Australia. Once the final investment decision is made, it is expected that the first batch of iron ore from these two mines will be produced in the early next decade.