Rio Tinto will carry out the rehabilitation of the closed Ranger uranium mine in Australia’s Northern Territory, a government body has ruled.
The Takeovers Panel’s decision ends a long-running dispute over whether Rio Tinto or its majority owned uranium producer Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA) would assume the site restoration’s costs. It also clears the way for Rio to assume full control of the uranium producer via the company’s capital raising, announced in August.
ERA halted activities at Ranger in 2021, after 40 years of operations. The initial goal was to finish the site cleanup by 2026. Rehabilitation costs for the site have surged to A$2.2bn ($1.4bn) and ERA warned in August it would run out of money by December. It said at the time it would launch a capital rising, with Rio as the most likely buyer of shares.
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