Last month in March, the Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) share price managed to outperform the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
The ASX mining share climbed by around 3%, while the ASX 200 dropped just over 1%.
Outperformance of around 4% in just one month is very helpful for Rio Tinto investors hoping to beat the return of the ASX 200 Index considering the ASX iron ore share typically comes with a good dividend yield as well.
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Why did the ASX 200 fall in March?
There are 200 businesses in the ASX 200. But, there are two sectors that have a large weighting in the index, so they can have the largest influence – resources and ASX bank shares.
Let's look at how the four biggest ASX bank shares performed last month.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price dropped 2.3%, the ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price fell 7%, the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price fell around 4% and the National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price sank 7.6%.
This was unfortunate as investors may have gone negative on the banking sector because of the troubles faced by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Credit Suisse.
On top of that, the Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ) share price dropped 8%, the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN) share price fell 11% and the Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price declined 7.3%.
Was anything announced that was positive for Rio Tinto shares?
While it wasn't a positive announcement, the ASX mining share did reveal that it had agreed to pay a $15 million civil penalty to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for "violations of the books and records and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
But, on the positive side of things, at the end of the month, Rio Tinto announced it was partnering with First Quantum Minerals to progress the La Granja copper project in Peru, which is reportedly one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world.
La Granja has the potential to be a "large, long-life" operation.
First Quantum is going to buy a 55% stake in the project for $105 million and commit to further invest up to $546 million into the joint venture to solely fund capital and operational costs to take the project through a feasibility study and toward development.
After completing the sole funding commitment, all subsequent expenditures will be applied on the basis of how much of the project each business owns.
This transaction is expected to complete by the end of the third quarter of 2023.
Rio Tinto share price snapshot
While it rose in March, the ASX mining share's valuation hasn't moved much since the start of the year.
