Transaction in Own Shares

Rio Tinto PLC
22 March 2006


Rio Tinto plc
Transaction in Own Shares
22 March 2006


Rio Tinto plc announces today that it has transferred to participants in its
employee share schemes the following number of its ordinary shares of 10p each,
which were previously held as treasury shares.


Ordinary Shares

Date of transfer:                                              22 March 2006

Number of ordinary shares transferred:                         65,108

Highest transfer price per share:                              1458.6p

Lowest transfer price per share:                               965.4p


Following the above purchase, Rio Tinto plc holds 11,300,518 ordinary shares as
treasury shares.  The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding shares
held as treasury shares) is 1,060,939,153.


For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations
Nigel Jones
Office: [phone]
Mobile: [phone]

Secretarial Department
Matthew Whyte
Office: [phone]

Website: www.riotinto.com



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