Things became a little surreal for the mining sector during-the March quarter when it was reported in the press that the world's third largest mining house - the publicly-listed Rio Tinto - had employed former US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger to help it win back the collective heart of the Chinese. The rumour came after Rio Tinto had run into some serious diplomatic issues with China during 2009. Aside from the arrest of four of its iron ore executives in Shanghai on corruption and espionage charges, the miner had also put its biggest shareholder - the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) Ltd - offside when it decided to stave off a mooted carving up of its Australian aluminum and carbon steel assets involving the Chinese group by getting into bed with rival BHP Billiton Plc.
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