Rio Tinto hits records in rush to cash in on top prices

Rio Tinto hit record production in iron ore, alumina and coking coal in its third quarter.

The mining giant said that it was pushing all its worldwide operations close to or above capacity in order to cash in on strong commodity prices.

The shares rose 78.5p, nearly 2%, to 4116.5p as Rio's chief executive Tom Albanese said the firm's investment in organic growth was "gathering momentum".

The world's third-largest miner said its iron ore production rose 1% to 47.6 million tonnes in the three months to October.

But it stuck with its existing guidance for production for this year to come in at 234 million tonnes.

Production of hard coking coal was up 17% to 2.4 million tonnes, and alumina production was ramped up 6% to 2.3 million tonnes.