Rio Tinto posts 2% rise in third — quarter iron ore sales

Oct 14 (Reuters) — Rio Tinto reported a 2% rise in third-quarter iron ore sales on Wednesday, helped by strong mine performance and healthy port inventories. The miner shipped 85.7 million metric tons from its Pilbara operations in the three months ended September 30, up from 84.3 million tons a year earlier and above the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 84.41 million tons. (Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee & Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva) ((Sneha.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com;)