October 08, 2008

Rio Tinto to sell its Cortez gold mine for USD 1.695 billion

Rio Tinto announced that it has reached an agreement on the second sale under its planned program to divest at least USD 15 billion of assets. Rio Tinto group has signed an agreement to sell its interest in the Cortez gold mine at Nevada in USA to a subsidiary of its joint venture partner, Barrick Gold Corporation.

The Cortez gold mine is a joint venture between Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott Explorations of Australia and Barrick subsidiary Barrick Cortez Inc. The property is located in Crescent Valley, 75 miles south west of Elko, Nevada and is a complex of several open pit mines. The Cortez joint venture is operated by Barrick Cortez Inc.

The sale price includes a cash consideration of USD 1.695 billion. In addition, Rio Tinto will benefit from a deferred bonus payment in the event of a significant discovery of additional reserves and resources at the Cortez gold mine and will also retain a contingent royalty interest in the future production of the property. There is no financing condition and closing of the transaction is expected to occur in March 2008.

Mr Guy Elliott CFO of Rio Tinto said that "Just last week we announced the sale of Greens Creek silver, gold, zinc and lead mine in Alaska for USD 750 million, so we are on track to achieve almost one quarter of our target of realising asset sales of USD 10 billion in 2008. This illustrates that high quality assets will continue to attract financially strong strategic buyers.”