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Extracted from The Edge Daily
website
Rio Tinto Group, one of
This brings the number of
Australian companies interested to two. It was reported earlier that BHP
Billiton, the world’s largest diversified resources company, had expressed its
interest in the project.
Besides the Australian
parties, four other groups including joint ventures between local and foreign
interests are said to be bidding for the US$2 billion (RM7.6 billion) to US$2.5
billion project.
Sources say Rio Tinto, the
world’s third largest mining company, had informed the federal and
It is believed that the
Australian parties are looking at various options in their venture here
including joint ventures.
However, an industry observer
believes these companies prefer to be in control of the project given the
mammoth investment and their expertise in this business.
The sources say Rio Tinto and
BHP Billiton will want to know about land matters and infrastructure such as
port facilities nearby and power supply, which are crucial for the smelter
project.
A source says the Australian
companies? Interest in the smelter project had been rekindled after the
Malaysian government gave the go-ahead for the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam project.
They are believed to have
been keen on the smelter project when it was first mooted, but their interest
cooled down when uncertainties over the dam project cropped up.
A consortium, the China
National Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corp and a Sime Darby Bhd-led
joint venture of six Malaysian companies, has won the RM1.79 billion contract
to build the 2,400MW Bakun dam.
Earlier, there were concerns
over the delay in the dam project but these had been addressed with the Chinese
party taking over the project management at the Bakun site.
Early this month,
Sydney-based Rio Tinto said it would return A$1.5 billion (RM4.48 billion) to
investors through share buybacks after soaring Chinese demand led to a big jump
in earnings. BHP Billiton has operations in