The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price was on course to record a strong gain in 2021. That was until iron ore prices collapsed earlier this year.
Since then, the mining giant's shares have fallen 28% from their highs, wiping out all their year to date gains in the process.
In light of this, Rio Tinto's shares are now down 15% in 2021.
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Is this a buying opportunity?
While the pullback in the Rio Tinto share price has been disappointing for shareholders, a couple of leading brokers see this as a buying opportunity for non-shareholders.
According to a note out of Morgan Stanley this morning, its analysts have retained their overweight rating and $110.50 price target on the company's shares.
Based on the current Rio Tinto share price, this implies potential upside of approximately 12% for investors over the next 12 months.
Morgan Stanley likes Rio Tinto due to its exposure to aluminium and its belief that China's housing outlook is improving.
Who else is bullish on the Rio Tinto share price?
Analysts at Goldman Sachs are also positive on the Rio Tinto share price. Last week they retained their buy rating and $121.00 price target on its shares.
The broker also likes Rio Tinto due to its exposure to aluminium and particularly its ELYSIS inert anode technology. This technology helps reduce the carbon footprint of aluminium production materially. Goldman sees opportunities for the technology to be licensed and suspects it could generate billions in revenue.
Goldman said: "In addition to copper production growth, Rio has one of the highest margin, lowest carbon emission aluminium businesses in the world, with over 2.2Mt of Ali production powered by hydro, and we think ELYSIS inert anode technology could be worth billions of $. Aluminium will contribute 20% of RIO's group EBITDA in 2022 on our estimates."
