BUZZ-Australia's Rio Tinto slips on reports of unsuccessful merger talks with Swiss miner

Rio Tinto RIO.AX falls 1% to A$118.385, lowest since Jan. 10

Stock shed as much as 1.8% earlier in the day to A$117.50 vs mining sector's .AXMM as much as 0.6% drop

Co held early-stage merger talks with Swiss-headquartered diversified miner Glencore GLEN.L last year, sources familiar with the matter said

However, discussions are no longer active, sources added

Had deal gone through, merged entity would have created combined co with market value of ~$158 bln, surpassing top miner BHP's BHP.AX $126 billion valuation

RIO up 1% this year vs AXMM's 3.7% rise

(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru)

((shivangi.lahiri@thomsonreuters.com;))