THE market is starting to factor in the prospect of Rio Tinto taking a $US7billion ($A10.8billion) write-down on its $US38billion acquisition of Canadian aluminum producer Alcan when it releases its full-year results in February.

RUSSIAN billionaires from aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska to Chelsea soccer-club owner Roman Abramovich have lost more than $US230 billion ($363 billion) in five months during the nation's worst financial crisis since the 1998 default on its debt.

A SCULPTURE inspired by a caravan built by Albert Tucker in his Paris hotel room has won has won this year's $115,000 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award. L'Archeveche by the Tasmanian artist Bob Jenyns, is two-thirds the size of Tucker's mobile home and made from large Meccano-like pieces of powder-coated aluminum.

BHP Billiton's plan to create a $380 billion mining colossus through the takeover of a reluctant Rio Tinto has been thrown into disarray following the dramatic eleventh-hour intervention of Aluminum Corp of China and US aluminium giant Alcoa.

British hurdler Carte Diamond's Melbourne Cup bid was derailed in spectacular fashion at Flemington yesterday morning when the five-year-old crashed into an aluminum running rail.