Albanese was upbeat on Rio Tinto’s position placing his faith in China despite the ongoing global financial crisis.

“Personally, I feel that the real impact of the financial panic of this week is oversold and we will see some return to sanity. In this environment, the demand from China will continue to be robust,” he said.

“Realistically, however, we should expect China’s growth numbers to be somewhat lower. At the same time, the current capital crisis will restrict the present planned supply response, and this will favour Rio Tinto.”

Albanese pointed out Chinese GDP growth would fall from 12% last year to 10% this year and he expected it to contract further to 9% next year. However, he said China was simply “pausing for breath”

Despite fundamentals driving China, he said recent market signals could not be ignored, nor the risk of a failure of the Wall Street bailout plan.

“Nor the consequences of where an unconstrained financial crisis could take the world economy, the mining sector and certainly the Australian economy,” Albanese said.

“We find ourselves in the midst of a serious global financial crisis, while at the same time we are currently experiencing the best conditions for commodities for perhaps 50 years.

“It seems paradoxical, although I believe it’s not. This is because I believe that the China phenomenon is sustainable, and will outlast the cyclical impacts of the mature and troubled financial centres.”