aluplanet.com
Rio Tinto starts writing down its Mozambique assets
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
Rio Tinto has started a write-down of its Mozambique assets, which might lead to the partial sales of the activities bought less than two years ago through the Riversdale Mining acquisition. Entrance to Mozambique, where Rio hoped for a rapid exploitation of what it had defined the world's best coking coal reserves with significant growth potential – turned out to be an unlucky deal. Last week, the mining company wrote down $3 billion of its Mozambique assets after paying $4.2 billion for them. An additional write-down in the order of $10-11 billion concerns the corporate aluminium assets, but according to the company it's mainly the "unacceptable" mistakes in Africa that led to the immediate sacking of the Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese and of the CFO Doug Ritchie. Rio’s top management has most probably undervalued logistic problems to barge coal from the mines down over 600 km to the ports on the Zambezi River. But Mozambique's government refused the use because it might harm the ecosystem. The company has now started dealings with Maputo to investigate possible options that according to indiscretions by the Australian Financial Review also involve the collaboration with other mining companies for the construction of a dedicated railway line.
Previous article
New norms set for Chinese Aluminum Industry
Next articleJapan's aluminum alloy import from China drops but from Europe surges in 2012
Grow with
AL Circle
