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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (30488)	12/17/2008 10:25:00 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 195027

Steinmetz firm says gets half Rio's Guinea iron site miningweekly.com By: Reuters Published on 17th December 2008 CONAKRY - A subsidiary of the Beny Steinmetz Group (BSG) has said it has obtained the rights to the northern portion of Rio Tinto's huge Simandou iron-ore concession in Guinea. "BSG Resources Guinea has the pleasure to announce that it has been granted Simandou blocks 1 and 2," company spokesman Ibrahima Sory Toure told reporters late on Tuesday in Guinea's capital Conakry, referring to the northern part of Simandou. Rio Tinto said last week that Guinea's government was planning to take away its rights to the northern portion of Simandou after the company announced delays to the $6-billion project. Rio vowed to fight to retain it. BSG Resources Limited is a fully-owned Guernsey-based BSG subsidiary active in mining, energy and engineeering in Africa and the former Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States, according to the company's website. The company already had permits to the north and south of the Rio site, which Rio has described as the world's biggest known undeveloped iron-ore reserve. "We have an adequate budget for exploring the area. We already have $35,7-million dollars ready for the first three years," BSG Resources geologist Nassirou Bah told reporters. BSG Resources says it is is exploring in Guinea for iron as well as uranium and bauxite, the primary ore used to make aluminium of which Guinea is the world's top producer. Rio's Simandou development has been hampered by confusion over its right to mine the concession. Guinean officials have questioned the validity of Rio's mining rights, while the mining company has repeatedly said it has the legal right to mine. A week ago a Rio spokesman in Guinea said the firm had decided to postpone developing the $6-billion project, in which it holds a 95% stake, in order to conserve cash amid a global economic downturn. A day afterwards the company said it had received a letter from Guinea's mining minister that appeared to require "a compulsory relinquishment of the northern half of the Simandou mining concession whilst confirming Rio Tinto's entitlement to the southern half of that concession". The two sides have been in talks since August, when Guinea sought to cancel the whole licence, and Rio said in September that the two sides had agreed to "move forward". Simandou's production had been targeted to begin in 2013 at eight-million tons, rising to 70-million tons by 2018.