Four Chinese banks, including the Bank of China (BOC), have signed agreements to provide 21 billion U.S. dollars worth syndicated loans to the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), to support its bid for Rio Tinto, the BOC announced Friday.

The agreement will not take effect until the deal is approved by the Australian government, the BOC's spokesman Wang Zhaowen said.

"The BOC approved the loan agreement after strict assessments according to commercial loan regulations, and would work together with another three banks to fund the bid," he said.

"It reflects Chinese banks are confident in Chinalco and its strategic partnership with Rio Tinto, as well as the long-term prospect of the mining industry," he said.

But he did not clarify which the other three banks were.

The Caijing magazine earlier reported the other lenders were the state-run Agricultural Bank of China, and two policy lenders -- China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China.

In January 2008, Chinalco and U.S.-based aluminum producer Alcoa jointly bought a 12-percent stake in London-listed Rio Tinto PLC for 14 billion U.S. dollars. The deal translated into a 9.3-percent stake in the parent company Rio Tinto by Chinalco, which made it the top shareholder of Rio.

Chinalco announced later on Feb. 12 that it would invest 19.5 billion U.S. dollars to bail out Rio Tinto, the world third largest miner. This is by far the largest overseas investment by a Chinese company.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2009)