Rio Tinto has expressed its confidence in its continual growth  despite the ongoing market turmoil in Europe, with the mining giant operating at full production and export capacity.

 

The company is speculated to post a capital expenditure of a little over $12 billion, with figures showing the company is in good health to manage any developments in the market in the near future.

 

Despite the overall confidence of the country’s second biggest miner, CEO Tom Albanese said he expects prices to soften in the coming months.

 

Mr Albanese said that despite wavering consumer confidence in Europe and the US, demand from China is expected to continue to increase. Mr Albanese also announced that even in the event of a slowdown in demand from China, India was well placed to pick up any drop off in demand.

 

Head of Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore operations Sam Walsh echoed Mr Albanese’s confidence, saying that the company’s long-term fundamentals remain unaffected by changing global sentiment.

 

“Our entire second half of 2011 has been above system capacity as we have recovered from the weather events that we had at the start of the year and we are on track to produce 240 million tonnes globally this year, again dependent on early season weather,” Mr Walsh told an investor meeting.