re: Ann: CYU to Farm-in to Rio Tinto Explorat... Rio signs...

re: Ann: CYU to Farm-in to Rio Tinto Explorat... Rio signs another JV with Chinalco

* David Fickling
* From: Dow Jones Newswires
* April 27, 2011 10:43AM


RIO Tinto will enter a joint venture with Chinalco's Australian subsidiary to explore for copper in Chile.

China Yunnan Copper Australia's (CYU) main shareholder is Yunnnan Copper Industry, which is in turn majority-owned by Chinalco. Chinalco is also the largest shareholder in Rio Tinto, holding around 9 per cent of its UK-listed shares.

CYU said today it would explore Palmani and Caramasa, two tenements close to BHP Billiton's Cerro Colorado mine with good prospects for porphyry, a copper ore which often contains significant quantities of gold, silver and molybdenum. The company could earn a 40 per cent interest in each project if it spends a minimum of $US18 million over five years on the two projects.


Last December, Rio Tinto and Chinalco announced a joint venture to carry out exploration activities in China, although the companies haven't said which commodities they would be looking for.

The companies' largest joint venture, the Simandou iron ore project in the west African country of Guinea, saw progress last week when Rio Tinto signed a deal with Guinea's government that will allow Guinea to raise its eventual stake in the project to 35 per cent.

Chinalco has agreed to pay $US1.35 billion to Rio Tinto to take a 44.65 per cent stake in the project, which is currently 95 per cent owned by Rio Tinto and 5 per cent by the World Bank's International Finance Corp. That stake would diminish as Guinea's ownership of Simandou rises.