We know the big majors focus on scalability when looking at assets - low cost, long life, scalable assets (in the right jurisdiction). Oyu Tolgoi fits that bill for Rio, as does Bingham canyon / kennecott and their stake in Escondida.
MODs assets are a long way away from being comparable to these assets - but Africa appears the next major resource of copper.. Botswana appears to be one of the better jurisdictions, Rio have shown they are more than willing to invest in Africa and the area is beginning to show its scale and economics.
I would also consider throwing another company in the mix and that is South32. A diversified miner without a copper asset (what!). They have billions of cash with no debt and are on the hunt for base metals assets. They have good mining operators in South Africa and mine manganese in the Kalahari. They have shown their interest in copper through various farm ins (mainly in North America) but have not shown an interest in investment in Africa as yet (other than their existing asset which they inherited). FQM is another in the mix though they got burnt in the DRC and have now limited their African investments to Zambia and moved to progress one of their big assets in cobre panama. I could also make a case for glencore (Africa focussed but looking to reduce exposure to DRC?) and Anglo.... at the end of the day there are plenty of sharks, we just need to get the right bait.
