The company is seeking to acquire $1.72 billion of its 2019 and 2020 US dollar-denominated notes and around $781 million of its five 2021, 2022 and 2025 US dollar-denominated notes.

Rio said the announcement was part of its “ongoing capital management plan” and followed the successful completion, last year, of a series of $7.5 billion US dollar-denominated note redemptions and repurchases.

It comes on top of the company’s $500 million share buy-back, which got underway in March.

Last week at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Metals & Mining Conference in Barcelona, Rio CEO J-S Jacques reiterated the company’s strong financial position.

“Our focus on cash enabled us to maintain the best balance sheet in the sector and declare $3.6 billion of cash returns to our shareholders. $3.1 billion of dividend and $500 million of share buy-back,” he said.

“We delivered EBITDA of $13.5 billion with a margin of 38%.

“Our stronger financial position allows us to maintain a balanced allocation between capex, debt reduction and shareholder return.”

Last year, Rio cut net debt by 30% to $9.6 billion.

Rio has pledged to generate $5 billion in free cashflow over the next five years via productivity initiatives.

“This is free money, and you can be absolutely sure we will go for it,” Jacques said last week.

UBS’ London team met with Jacques in the last few days and said the update was “reassuring”.

“Based on the update with J-S Jacques, we remain confident Rio will adhere to this strategy and lift returns in 2017/18,” the bank said.

“We expect this in turn to drive a re-rating assuming iron ore normalises at circa $50-55/t.”

Analyst Myles Allsop reiterated Rio’s buy rating and boosted its price target by 18.3% to 3750 pence.

Rio’s London-listed shares have jumped by over 70% over the past year to close at 3211p overnight.

Rio’s Australian shares are up by around 54% over the same period.

Shares in the company fell by A71c this morning to $64.49.