Vale has agreed to turn over a development study for a contested iron ore project to Rio Tinto.
Brazil’s Vale SA agreed to turn over a development study for a contested iron ore project in Guinea to Rio Tinto Group as a dispute over the world’s biggest untapped deposit intensifies.
Guinea seized a portion of the rights to mine the Simandou deposit from billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources Ltd. and Vale and plans to sell them in the next few months, with President Alpha Conde estimating the sale should fetch more than $100 million.
BSGR is seeking to block the tender, while Rio Tinto sued Steinmetz, his mining company and Vale, claiming they conspired to steal the rights to the Simandou project.
Rio Tinto, the second-largest mining company, argued the four-year-old development study “would shed light on what information Vale improperly took” from its data room when the London-based mining company was seeking a new investor in 2008, according to a Feb. 18 letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck.
Vale had refused to produce the full document and intended to “significantly and improperly redact it,” Michael Lyle, a lawyer for Rio Tinto, wrote in the letter.
“This feasibility study is a comprehensive mining document that likely contains or reflects information Vale stole from Rio Tinto’s data room and used in furtherance of its conspiracy,” Lyle said.
Study Irrelevant
Vale said the study is irrelevant and none of the information in it was stolen from Rio Tinto. The existence of the study has been part of the public record since at least 2013 and Vale never hid it from Rio Tinto or anyone else, wrote Lewis Liman, a lawyer for Vale.
A feasibility study assesses the technical and economic viability of a project. Vale and partner BSGR had planned a $10 billion mining operation at the site.
The iron-rich Simandou mountain range in Guinea has attracted some of the world’s biggest mining companies seeking to gain a foothold in West Africa, a region once seen as the next great iron-ore export hub after Brazil and Australia.
Source: mineweb
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