** Morningstar says Rio Tinto's RIO.AX abandoned deal for Glencore GLEN.L hinged on clashing views over control and valuation, with Rio unwilling to pay a high enough premium while insisting its chair and CEO lead the merged group

** Investment research firm says Glencore appeared to have leaned on the market’s “bullish” copper prices to drive talks, with Rio walking away rather than stretching further in a potential all-stock deal that would have been only “minimally dilutive”

** Morningstar says Rio’s interest was driven by its desire to expand in copper but argued that with spot copper trading well above its assumed mid-cycle price from 2030, "it is a better time to be selling copper mines rather than buying them."

** Maintains A$125 fair value estimate on Rio

** ASX-listed Rio shares are up ~7% YTD as of last close

(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru)

((Tanishk.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; X: @thatstanishk http://www.x.com/thatstanishk;))