Rio Tinto Group is seeking a better relationship with China, the mining company's largest customer, and is in talks with Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco) after four Rio employees were arrested in a spying row.

Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese said he's "disappointed" Rio didn't complete a proposed investment by Chinalco in June. He's held "early stage" talks with the company and Chinese officials about cooperation and possible joint investments, he said on Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg Radio.

"Those relationships are very important. Certainly from a Chinalco perspective, in the long term I think there are things we can do together," Albanese said. "We have a number of challenges in China at the moment."