The JV will initially focus on exploring copper and plans to expand into coal and potash, Rio Tinto said in a statement released on Friday.

The statement did not provide a timetable for the JV to start exploration and did not mention any specific project.

Chinalco, China's top producer of aluminum, has a controlling 51 percent stake in the venture and Rio Tinto, one of the world's three largest iron ore suppliers, holds the rest.

The two sides signed an agreement in June of this year to form the JV.

It will help enhance China's domestic resources supply capabilities, said Wang Dongsheng, the venture's chairman.

China is the world's largest copper consumer and around 50 percent of its copper supplies rely on imports. The country imported 295,341 tonnes of refined copper in October, up 74 percent year-on-year, according to customs data.

The tie-up was recognized as a major milestone in the expanding partnership between the two companies after Rio Tinto's ties with China were strained in 2009 partly because of Chinalco's rejected deal for 19.5 billion U.S. dollars of Rio Tinto shares and the arrest of four Rio Tinto employees under bribery and commercial espionage charges.

In July of 2010, the Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco), a listed arm of Chinalco, agreed to pay 1.35 billion U.S. dollars for a joint venture with Rio Tinto to develop the Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea.