NMDC in talks with Rio Tinto over JVC: report

07 August 2008

Public sector miner National Mineral Development Corporation Limited (NMDC) is reported to be negotiating with Rio Tinto for a 50:50 joint venture for bidding for global mining assets, the Business Standard said yesterday.

NMDC chairman and managing director Rana Som told the paper, ''We are in discussion for a 50:50 joint venture. Rio Tinto was one of the international parties to evince interest in establishing a joint venture when we floated a tender.''

Besides acquisition of global assets, the partnership could be extended to new assets in the domestic market also, the report said. Out of the 35 companies which had shown interest six were foreign companies Som said.

Rio Tinto, which has so far successfully thwarted a hostile takeover from BHP Bilition, is the world's second largest miner with vast intersts in aluminum, copper, diamonds, energy products, gold, industrial minerals and iron ore.

Though Rio Tinto's activities span the world, it is strongly focused on Australia, North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa and in June it had applied for a mining lease for the Bunder diamond project in the Bundelkhand region Madhya Pradesh in what could be the first significant world class diamond mine in India. The mioner has also shown an interst in mining in Orissa.

The exploration project had set up a target of 40-70 million tonnes at a grade of between 0.3 and 0.7 carats per tonne. The targeted diamond grades are at least three times greater than the grade of the Panna mine, India's only other hard rock diamond mine.