Billionaire Says Rio Probe Proves Elaborate Plot to Strip Prized Guinea Mine Rights
- ‘We have been fighting very powerful forces,’ Steinmetz says
- Simandou was once called the world’s top undeveloped deposit
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Billionaire Beny Steinmetz says the suspension of a senior Rio Tinto Group executive this week over a payment in Guinea is evidence of an elaborate plot that culminated in Steinmetz’s mining company being stripped of its rights to a $20 billion iron-ore project two years ago.
Steinmetz’s BSG Resources Ltd. and Rio, the world’s second-biggest mining company, have been engaged in a bitter dispute over rights to one of the world’s most prized mineral assets for about a decade. BSGR, which has rejected allegations of bribery, had its rights to half of the iron-rich mountain in West Africa revoked after the government said it had found evidence of corruption in awarding the licenses.