Rio Tinto secures expansion with land royalties deal

Rio Tinto, one of the world's leading miners, has agreed to pay an undisclosed percentage of iron ore sales to traditional landowners in Western Australia clearing the way for its expansion plans.

Rio said on Friday it had signed land use partnerships with five Aboriginal communities and expected to seal deals with four remaining communities where its mining or infrastructure operations are.

It will make royalty-like payments, which newspapers estimated would be worth several billion dollars over 40 years, to the landowners in return for consent for all new iron ore mine and infrastructure developments on their lands.

"For Rio Tinto these participation agreements secure platforms of stability and business certainty for decades into the future," Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Sam Walsh said in a statement.

The agreement includes full support for two key port expansions, essential to Rio's plans to increase iron ore production by 50 percent to 333 million tonnes a year by 2015.

Rio's side of the agreement includes providing employment and training and meeting certain standards on environmental management.