No final decision has been made on a proposed $116 billion iron ore production joint venture between Rio Tinto PLC (RTP, RIO.LN) and BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP, BHP.AU) that has faced stiff regulatory hurdles, Rio Tinto's chief executive said Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported at the end of September that BHP and Rio Tinto were evaluating revisions to or a postponement to their joint-venture proposal.

CEO Tom Albanese told Dow Jones journalists here that "no final decision has been taken," adding that "the proposal is facing regulatory obstacles from anti-trust authorities who are still reviewing the proposal."

Anti-trust regulatory agencies in Japan, Korea, the European Union and Australia have indicated there may be obstacles to getting regulatory approval for the joint venture, the Anglo Australian mining company said Tuesday.

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton announced in June 2009 a proposal to combine their iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Each company would be entitled to half of the joint venture's output and would market the iron ore independently of each other.

The proposal is due to expire at the end of 2010. It was originally forecast to close by mid-2010.

The joint venture is forecast to generate synergies of $10 billion by allowing both companies to streamline infrastructure investment in order to produce more iron ore at a faster pace.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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