Bloomberg
China Molybdenum Co., the nation’s second-biggest producer of the steelmaking material, agreed to pay $820 million for Rio Tinto Group’s Northparkes mine to gain its first overseas copper asset.
The sale should be completed by the end of the year, Rio said today in a statement. London-based Rio owns 80 percent of the mine with the balance held by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. and Sumitomo Corp. (8053), which have the right to match the offer.
Buying the stake gives China Molybdenum control of a mine in New South Wales that provided 43,100 metric tons of mined copper for Rio in 2012 as well as a specialist underground training center. The purchase ranks as the third-largest by a Chinese company of a mining asset announced this year as the number and value of the nation’s deals in the sector slides from last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.