Weng made the comment in a meeting on Thursday with Rio's chief executive, Jakob Stausholm, and an accompanying delegation from the Anglo-Australian company, the statement added.

He expressed hope for both sides to promote and deepen pragmatic co-operation in iron ore trading, and exploration and development of mineral resources as well as new energy, it said.

The firm's joint efforts in recent years had brought continuous achievements, the statement quoted Weng as saying.

"This will lay a solid foundation for future co-operation at a deeper level," Weng added.

Other global issues both sides could tackle were energy conservation and emission cuts, low-carbon development, adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) norms and sustainable development, Weng said.

(Reporting by Albee Zhang, Amy Lv and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jason Neely and Clarence Fernandez)