Rio Tinto shares drop on China spy allegations

Shares in global miner Rio Tinto Ltd fell more than 3 percent on Monday after China stepped up its spying allegations against the company, although Australia's Foreign Ministry said the latest accusations were nothing new.

China's state secrets agency said on its website at the weekend that Rio Tinto had spied on Chinese steel mills for six years, resulting in the mills overpaying $102 billion for iron ore, Rio Tinto's biggest earner.

Rio Tinto declined to comment on the accusations, which followed China's detention a month ago of four Rio employees in Shanghai, including Australian Stern Hu, on suspicion of stealing state secrets.

The company said last month its employees had done nothing wrong. The men remain in detention and have yet to be charged.

"The allegations referred to on the National Secrets Protection Bureau Web site are not new," a spokeswoman for Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement.

"The government has always said the Stern Hu case was complex and involved serious allegations. The government has urged the Chinese authorities to deal with his case expeditiously," the spokeswoman said, adding Australia would continue to make representations to Chinese authorities over Hu's case. link....