Rio Tinto Ltd
(ASX:RIO) and Chinalco are teaming up again less than a year after the breakdown of their $21.3 billion investment deal.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the miner and the aluminium giant are in talks that could lead to the development of the Simandou iron ore field in Guinea, west Africa, at an expected cost of $13.1 billion.
The joint venture negotiations have been underway in Beijing before Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese visits the China Development Forum this weekend.
If a deal is approved by the Chinese and Guinean governments, it is likely that Chinalco will finance the next stage of pre-development and that Rio will remain the senior partner in the project.
It is believed Chinalco and Rio have also been discussing iron ore exploration in China and bauxite and alumina refining interests in north Queensland.
News of the joint venture comes on the back of a Chinese government report into the failure of the initial deal between Rio and Chinalco, which has cleared the miner and the Australian Government of any wrongdoing.
Instead, the report attributes ordinary economic forces to the collapse of what would have been China’s biggest foreign investment deal.
Rio Tinto posted a profit of $5.432 billion for calendar 2009.
