Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd. and London based Rio Tinto Group are reportedly nearing the end of all discussion regarding their proposed Iron Ore joint venture, and the deal could be announced as early as today.

All details and terms of the agreement are being given the final touches and both the firms could jointly announce a deal on or around December 05, a deadline which was set by both the miners about 6 months back.

BHP and Rio are the world's second and third largest iron ore producers, respectively, and on June 5, both the parties had announced that their "Western Australian mines, railways and ports in a 50-50 venture that would save more than $10 Billion", and a bidding accord would be reached in about 6 months.

"Rio is focused on finalizing the details of the agreement and we are still on track for completion in the near future", said Nick Cobban, Rio's spokesman, while BHP's spokesperson Ruban Yogarajah declined to share a comment on the matter.

The joint venture has come almost a year after BHP's hostile takeover of Rio in light of the latter's mounting debts, falling commodity prices and regulatory hurdles.