Rio Tinto Alcan and Le Grand défi Pierre Lavoie announce a new "stay in
school" initiative: Aiguise ta matière grise!

MONTREAL, Nov. 3 /CNW Telbec/ - The Rio Tinto Alcan Canada Fund, through its Keeping youth in school together program, announced an investment of $1 million over two years for the implementation of Le Grand défi Pierre Lavoie's contest, Aiguise ta matière grise! (Brighten your grey matter!), which promotes and encourages youth to stay in school, starting at the primary level.

"We are very proud to be increasing our association with Le Grand défi Pierre Lavoie and to entrust this organisation with the responsibility of adding a 'stay in school' program to its existing objective of promoting a healthy lifestyle," said Jacynthe Côté, chief executive, Rio Tinto Alcan. "Even though dropping out of school takes place at the secondary level, we believe that we can help reduce it—prevent it actually—starting at the primary level."

The launch of this new initiative took place at the Paul-de-Maricourt school in Longueuil in the presence of a group of young people, the school principal, Yan Ellefsen, as well as the director of the Marie-Victorin school board, André Byette.

"I would like to take this opportunity to remind other corporate leaders of the importance of substantially increasing concrete and sustained efforts to encourage young people throughout Quebec to remain in school in order to ensure a promising future for themselves and for future generations," added Ms. Côté.

"The warm welcome that we have received from participating schools for this contest gives us hope that we can create a wave of interest across the entire school system," declared Pierre Lavoie. "We would like to stimulate a taste for learning among our young people because we believe that an educated society is one that is bound to adopt better living habits."

In January 2010, Rio Tinto Alcan announced that the Rio Tinto Alcan Canada Fund will invest more than $15 million over five years to support concrete actions to encourage young people to stay in school and complete their high school diplomas. The Keeping youth in school together program will finance various projects and initiatives of organizations that work directly with young people. In addition to Le Grand défi Pierre Lavoie, Rio Tinto Alcan has announced its support of organizations such as Toujours Ensemble, Allô Prof and the École de percussion Samajam.

The creation of the Keeping youth in school together program follows the publication of a report by the Groupe d'action sur la persévérance scolaire et la réussite scolaire au Québec that revealed that only 69 per cent of young Quebecers complete high school before age 20. An action strategy with the objective of increasing the high school graduation rate for students under 20 to 80 per cent by 2020 was subsequently implemented.

About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

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