Chinalco is set to participate in Rio Tinto’s rights issue, maintaining its stake in the miner just one month after the Chinese group walked away from a deal that would have seen it invest $19.5bn in return for holdings in nine of Rio’s mining assets.

People close to Chinalco say the state-owned group has exercised its full rights in the issue, keeping its ownership stake in Rio at the current size of 9 per cent – still well below the 19 per cent it would have risen to under last month’s aborted capital injection plan.