Rio Tinto chairperson Jan du Plessis
Photo by: Duane Daws
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The shareholders of mining major Rio Tinto on Thursday overwhelmingly voted in favour of the company’s plans to divest its Coal & Allied (C&A) assets to China-controlled Yancoal Australia.
Some 97.2% of the total votes cast at a general meeting were in favour of the revised proposal from Yancoal, under which the ASX-listed company was offering $2.69-billion for the C&A assets.
The revised offer included a $240-million unconditional guarantee royalty payment in addition to the previous cash offer of $2.45-billion, which was made after diversified miner Glencore offered $2.67-billion for the same assets.
Prior to the vote, Rio chairperson Jan du Plessis told shareholders that the Yancoal bid offered greater transaction certainty and better value for Rio shareholders, compared with the competing bid from Glencore.
C&A project partner Mitsubishi Development has previously said that it would sell its stake in the joint venture (JV) assets to whichever bid was backed by Rio’s board and shareholders.
Yancoal has offered $710-million to Mitsubishi for its 32.4% interests in the Hunter Valley JV operations and a further $230-million for a call option over its interest in the Warkworth operation.
Glencore had offered Mitsubishi $920-million for its JV interests.