Rio Tinto Not Buying Mongolia’s Equity-Royalty Swap Plan

Mining weekly reported that Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) is not a fan of Mongolia’s plan to exchange its equity stake in projects such as the miner’s Oyu Tolgoi in exchange for higher royalties.

As quoted in the publication:

Last week, Mongolian Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg proposed an amendment to the country’s mineral resources law to allow the government to exchange state-owned equity in “strategic mines” for higher royalties.

Mongolia hopes the plan will help to revive stalled foreign investment in large mining projects, but Walsh said Rio was not interested in buying a larger stake in the Oyu Tolgoicopper and gold mine.

Rio Tinto CEO, Sam Walsh, told reporters:

Quite frankly we’d rather put our focus and our dollars into the project. That’s for others to look at, taking equity in the project, we’re happy with our 50.1% of the project.

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