Australia-based miner Rio Tinto has announced that it has filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Brazil-based miner Vale and BSG Resources Limited regarding mining concessions in Guinea.
The complaint relates to the loss of half of Rio Tinto's mining concession in the Simandou region of southeast Guinea in 2008. Rio Tinto is asking the court to award compensatory, consequential, exemplary and punitive damages to Rio Tinto in an amount to be determined at trial.
In 2008, a mining license related to the Simandou iron ore project was granted to BSG Resources Limited instead of Rio Tinto.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, recently the Guinean government has cancelled the mining licenses for the Simandou and Zogota iron ore projects due to a technical committee report, indicating that the mining licenses were obtained by BSG Resources Limited through corrupt practices.