Rio Tinto Group, the second-largest iron-ore producer, said parties from China and Japan are among those interested in helping develop a project in the West African nation of Guinea.
The partners may provide capital or expertise in rail or port construction for the Simandou site, Sam Walsh, chief executive officer of Rio's iron-ore unit, said today in a presentation in London.
``It is early days in terms of discussions but there are a lot of visitors' talking to our team about what they can add to the project”, Walsh said. Any investment would be a minority stake as Rio didn't want to ``give the project away,'' he said.
Simandou will add to production from Rio's Pilbara mines in Australia as it seeks to triple output to more than 600 million metric tons and benefit from record prices for the steelmaking raw material. The project will need a 750-kilometrr (466-mile) rail line to link the mine with a new port facility, Walsh said.
Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese said today the project contains resources of 2.25 billion tons of iron ore and is the world's ``top undeveloped'' deposit. It will produce about 70 million tons of ore a year from 2013, possibly rising to 170 million tons, Albanese said.
Rio owns 95 percent of the project and the World Bank's International Finance Corp. 5 percent, Walsh said. Guinea government has the right to take 20 percent if approval for the project, expected by end-2009, is confirmed, he said.
Walsh said it was too early to update the $6 billion cost estimate for the project made in April last year.
Source: Bloomberg
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