MELBOURNE (Dow Jones) -- Rio Tinto Thursday shook off its reputation for conservatism with a $38.1bn (€28bn) recommended offer for Canada's Alcan, the biggest takeover deal yet in the consolidating global mining industry.

A rally in metals prices, driven by consumption from emerging economies such as China and India, has made mining companies cash-rich and encouraged some significant deals. But Rio's bid is a step up in scale, and could set a new benchmark for the next round of consolidation, analysts said.