Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, would have been willing to halve its shareholding in Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) and its stake in Rio Tinto's Hamersley iron ore operations to keep its US$19.5 billion alliance with the miner alive, Chinalco President Xiong Weiping said Thursday.

In the wake of the collapse of its deal with the Anglo-Australian firm June 4, the Chinese metals giant is paying close attention to the US$15.2 billion rights issue planned by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), Xiong said at a media briefing Thursday.

"We will pay close attention to Rio's rights issue, as Rio's largest single shareholder," he said. "We will also be paying close attention to the Rio-BHP joint venture."

-Juan Chen and Shai Oster contributed to this report, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588 5848; juan.chen@dowjones.com