Rio Tinto Completes the Sale of its Interest in Bengalla JV in Australia


An excavator loads a haul truck at the Hunter Valley Operations mine.
Rio Tinto has completed the sale of its 40% interest in the Bengalla coal joint venture (JV) in Australia to New Hope Corp. Ltd. for $616.7 million. Rio Tinto has now announced or completed $4.7 billion of divestments since January 2013.

A change to the ownership structure of Coal & Allied completed in early February helped enable this transaction. As 100% owner of Coal & Allied, Rio Tinto receives all consideration associated with the sale of its interest in the Bengalla JV. Rio Tinto holds a 67.6% interest with management rights in the Hunter Valley Operations mine. It also holds interests of 80% and 55.6%, respectively, with management rights, in the integrated Mount Thorley and Warkworth operations. The company currently holds 100% interest in the Mount Pleasant project. On January 27, Rio Tinto announced it reached a binding agreement for the sale of Mount Pleasant to MACH Energy Australia for $224 million plus royalties. The sale is expected to close in the second half of 2016.

Mitsubishi Development has moved from holding a 20% stake in Coal & Allied to holding a direct 32.4% stake in the Hunter Valley Operations mine.

As featured in Womp 2016 Vol 03 - www.womp-int.com