Rio Tinto, the global mining company that faced a huge debt burden a year ago, continued its recapitalisation drive as it netted $741m (£450m) by the spinning-off of US coal assets.
Cloud Peak Energy, which started trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, comprises most of Rio's former US coal business, which is an important supplier to US power plants. Another segment of the business, Jacobs Ranch mine, was sold to Arch Coal in October for $764m.
