Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – A subsidiary of diversified miner Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill Resources this week said it would sell 29.95% of Mongolia-focused coal miner SouthGobi Resources to Hong Kong-based National United Resources Holdings.
National United will buy 56.1-million shares at a price of C$0.455 a share, leaving Turquoise Hill with a 26% interest in SouthGobi after the deal had closed.
“SouthGobi will continue to focus on its business and drive to deliver upon its 2014 objectives with the usual high priority on safety,” the company reported on Wednesday.
The deal came almost two years after Aluminium Corp of China dropped its $926-million bid to buy 60% of SouthGobi, as a result of rigid political resistance to Chinese- and foreign-owned operations from Mongolia. Turquoise Hill also owns a 66% interest in the Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold mine, in Mongolia.