Rio Tinto Ltd has scrapped its planned sale of its diamonds unit. The Global miner valued its books at US$1.3 billion. The cancelled sale was amid the slide in the global financial markets. It was also amid a tough environment for commodity asset sales.

On Monday, the decision on the cancellation of the sale was announced. This marks the first of a string of planned asset sales that Rio Tinto may have to cancel in face of cautious bidders.

Rio has been eyeing sale on its iron ore, coal, copper and aluminum assets. This was valued at US$19 billion in net debt, cut costs and beef up returns to its shareholders. However, Rio said that it was not holding any fire sale.

CEO for Rio Tinto Diamonds & Minerals, Alan Davies said on Monday that the company is well positioned to capitalize on the positive market outlook.

Rio Tinto Ltd put its diamonds unit for sale March of last year. This was done after rival BHP Billiton also put up its diamonds arm on the block. BHP won the race to a find a buyer, Harry Winston. Now the company is called Dominion Diamond Corp.