Aluminum Corp of China and Rio Tinto signed a $1.35bn deal on Thursday that allows the Chinese state-owned miner to buy in to a rich iron ore project in Guinea, in a move that places both mining companies at the centre of multi-billion-dollar scramble for west Africa's iron ore.
Rio and Chinalco – the common name of the Chinese miner – revealed few changes to the earlier agreement they signed in March over Simandou, the Guinean deposit. Chinalco will pay Rio $1.35bn that will fund project development. In return, Chinalco buys its way up to a 47 per cent stake in the Rio-Chinalco joint venture.
Rio still disputes the boundaries of its Simandou concession. In 2008 the Guinean government stripped it of half of its Simandou rights, citing the miner's failure to develop a resource that could transform Guinea's export earnings.