MELBOURNE, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) said on Friday it would plough ahead with a $3.3 billion bid to buy the 49% of Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ.TO) that it does not already own, after it ended separate talks with dissenting minority shareholders.
The Anglo-Australian miner is seeking to simplify its management of the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia that it operates, but shares ownership through Turquoise Hill and the Mongolian government.
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Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. is indefinitely postponing the shareholder vote on the proposed $4.2-billion takeover of the company by Rio Tinto PLC as Quebec’s top securities regulator, the Autorité des marchés financier (AMF), studies whether a backdoor deal Rio cut with dissident shareholders is legal.
“The AMF considers the transaction as currently structured to raise public interest concerns,” Montreal-based Turquoise Hill said in a release on Wednesday.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has made a last-ditch appeal to shareholders of Canadian miner Turquoise Hill Resources to back its takeover offer, while hitting out against proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services’ (ISS) objection to the bid.
Rio moved in September to take full control of the copper miner, offering investors C$43 per share in a deal worth $4.85 billion. A successful takeover would give the miner firm grip over one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world.
Sailingstone Capital Partners, the fifth-biggest investor in Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX: TQR) said on Friday it will vote against Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON: RIO) intended $3.3 billion takeover of the Canadian miner, in a shareholder meeting on Nov. 1.
The activist investor said that Rio’s bid not only undervalues the target, but it also intends to take advantage of the “material governance failures” created by independent directors of both mining companies over the last decade.
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Rio Tinto Group and the federal government are planning to invest a combined $737-million to modernize a large Quebec metals processing plant that could see the giant Anglo-Australian miner dramatically cut its emissions and become one of the first North American producers of the critical metal titanium.
Rio Tinto, one of the world’s biggest mining companies, said in a release Tuesday it will invest up to $515-million into the Sorel-Tracy, Que., facility over the next eight years. Ottawa is planning to kick in as much as $222-million for the project over the same time frame.
Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) has inked a definitive arrangement with Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX: TQR) to buy the 49% of the Canadian miner it doesn’t already own for $3.3 billion.
The global miner noted Turquoise Hill’s board had unanimously recommended the C$43 per share cash offer and said it would not increase bid despite pressure from minority shareholders.
(Bloomberg) — Rio Tinto Group increased its offer to buy out Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. to $3.1 billion as it moves to gain more control of a giant copper mine in Mongolia.
The world’s biggest mining companies are getting increasingly aggressive in their pursuit of so-called future facing commodities, the natural resources such as copper and nickel that are key for the green energy transition. Yet despite the strong demand outlook, long-term supply may remain constrained by the lack of new mines.
Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX, NYSE: TRQ) has rejected majority shareholder Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) bid to buy the 49% stake it doesn’t already own in the company for $2.7 billion, saying it did not reflect its full and fair value.
The decision by the special committee appointed by Turquoise Hill blocks Rio Tinto’s efforts to gain greater control of the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine it’s developing in Mongolia.
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The serene Oak Flat upland lies in the heart of Arizona. With its beautiful peaks and forest, it is a beloved spot for campers, hikers and rock climbers. Above all, it is the centre of the San Carlos Apache tribe’s religion, a place of devotion where their gods dwell and they still perform traditional ceremonies.
But it is now at the centre of a dispute between the tribe and FTSE 100 giant Rio Tinto. It is also shaping up to be an acid test of the mining group’s claims that it is determined to respect sacred sites.
Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) is investing $188 million (C$240 million) to increase the production capacity for low-carbon, high-value aluminum billets at its Alma smelter in Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, by 202,000 tonnes.
The existing casting centre at Rio Tinto’s Alma plant will be expanded to accommodate new state-of-the-art equipment, including a casting pit and furnaces, allowing a larger portion of the aluminum produced to be converted to higher value billets.
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Rio Tinto Group is proposing to buy the 49 per cent of Canadian miner Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. it doesn’t already own for US$2.7-billion, potentially putting an end to years of strife with Turquoise Hill’s management and shareholders.
London-based Rio, one of the world’s biggest diversified mining companies, said on Monday it is offering $34 in cash a share for Turquoise Hill, a 32-per-cent premium to its Friday close on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Guinea’s ruling junta has ordered a full halt of Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) vast Simandou iron ore project in the country’s southeast, with interim president Mamady Doumbouya saying it is not clear how the mine will preserve national interests.
The current government, who took power in a military coup in September, said in a statement that Doumbouya had not seen any progress in that direction, despite having discussed the matter with Rio’s boss Jakob Stausholm in December.
(Bloomberg) — Noxolo Bobotyane, a veteran of more than a decade in South Africa’s gold fields, has seen first hand how women are sexually harassed as they start their shifts each day. Jammed into a metal cage with other mineworkers as they descend deep below the earth’s surface, there is literally no way out.
“The distance we are standing when we are inside the cage, we are so close to each other,” said Bobotyane, who is a union steward. “A man will touch you, when you are just standing in front of him and there is no way you can go anywhere, you are just standing in front of him. So you just wait for the cage to go down.”
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(Bloomberg Opinion) — Life in a mining camp in 2022 can often seem little different to conditions that prevailed a century ago. “[I have a] fear of violence. [There are] catcalls, advances made in camp when you are alone,” one Rio Tinto Group employee at a remote mine site told an internal commission into workplace culture which reported on Feb. 1.
“The men would sit on the stools and watch every single female that walked past. Some made comments. Some just stared … I ended up feeling so uncomfortable that I started making sure I had a buddy to walk to dinner and back with every single night — even when it wasn’t dark.”
LONDON (Reuters) – Rio Tinto has only bad options as it tries to salvage its $2.4 billion Serbian lithium project after the country’s leaders bowed to environmentalists and cancelled it last week.
The Anglo-Australian miner could sue the government, a step likely to fail and further antagonise Belgrade, or bet that pro-mining politicians emerge victorious in April parliamentary elections, a result that would embolden opponents.
