Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese today postponed a planned trip to Australia as he attempted to placate London shareholders furious at his proposed sale of up to 18% of the company to the Chinese.

Investors have been urging him to find an alternative to the proposed deal which raises $19.5 billion (£13.7 billion) from Chinese metals giant Chinalco. The proposal would see Rio cede to Beijing a large portion of its equity plus big individual stakes in some of its key assets.

Legal & General, the second-largest shareholder in Rio Tinto, has called for an alternative that would protect the rights of existing investors.

Fallout from the crisis at Rio has cost chairman Paul Skinner the chance to lead the BP board. Skinner, a former Shell executive, became embroiled in a boardroom split over the direction of Rio, which is struggling to deal with its $38 billion debt pile.

Some of Rio's top institutional investors are even believed to have promised to support BHP if it raised funds for another tilt at Rio. Talk of a renewed BHP bid pushed down shares in the miner by 21p to 1257p.

BHP abandoned its initial $66 billion hostile bid last year on to concerns about the miner's huge debt burden. Rio repeatedly rebuffed BHP's approach as too low.

“We have made it clear that a new bid from BHP, either as a whole or for some of the assets, would be preferable to a deal with China,” an unnamed top UK investor was quoted as saying. “Given that the level of Rio's debt is one of the biggest barriers, we have made it clear we will address the problem with a rights issue.”

Chairman-designate Jim Leng resigned over the affair, and Skinner has told BP he cannot take the job as he has to stay at Rio to try to clean up the mess.

Albanese was due to meet Australian fund managers in Sydney today to discuss the deal, but sent chief financial officer Guy Elliott instead.

“The shareholders that matter are in the UK,” said one investor at the meeting.

The Chinalco deal is designed to help Rio pay down some of its debt mountain and prepare it for a lengthy recession. Much of its debt sprung from its ill-timed takeover of Canadian aluminium giant Alcan at the top of the market.

Rio shares shed 7p to 1982p in London today after heavier falls in Sydney.