2007 Financial statements

Note 39 - Principal associates

**At 31 December 2007**
Name and country of incorporation/operation	Principal activities	Number of shares held by the Group	Class of shares held	Proportion of class held %		Group interest %
Brazil
Mineração Rio do Norte SA (a)	Bauxite mining	25,000,000 47,000,000	Ordinary Preferred	12.5 11.8	}	12.0
Cameroon
Compagnie Camerounaise de l'Aluminum	Aluminium smelting	8,114,979,600	XAF	46.7		46.7
Canada
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd (b)	Copper and gold mining	37,089,883	Common	9.95		9.95
South Africa
Tisand (Pty) Limited	Ilmenite, rutile and zircon mining	7,353,675	R1	49.0		50.0
United States of America
Cortez (c)	Gold mining		(d)			40


Notes	Expand
Mineração Rio do Norte SA is accounted for as an associated company because the Group has significant influence through representation on its Board of Directors. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd is accounted for as an associated company because the group has significant influence through representation on its Board of Directors and participation in the technical committee that will be responsible for its Oyu Tolgoi project. Rio Tinto has the ability to increase progressively its stake to 43 per cent over the next four years at predetermined prices, involving an additional investment of US$2 billion. See footnote (a) of note 42. This operation is unincorporated. The Group's principal associates are held by intermediate holding companies and not directly by Rio Tinto plc or Rio Tinto Limited. The Group comprises a large number of operations and it is not practical to include all of them in this list. The list therefore only includes those entities that have a more significant impact on the profit or operating assets of the Group. With the exception of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, the core assets of which are located in Mongolia, all associates operate mainly in the countries in which they are incorporated.