No truck with it: Rio Tinto mining operations in Australia. A deal with Chinalco would have boosted China’s influence in the iron ore market

The language of matrimony may often be invoked to describe corporate tie-ups; bust-ups too. But Rio Tinto’s broken engagement with Chinalco of China prompted one of Beijing’s more strident state-controlled newspapers to run an editorial last weekend that, in accusing the Anglo-Australian resources group of infidelity, made an elaborate contribution to the genre.