Rio Tinto names Shell’s Katie Jackson as new copper chief
Jackson, who is the current president of National Grid Ventures, an energy group, joins Rio Tinto on September 1.
Xstrata Plc is looking to offload a portion of its $6.4 billion Wandoan coal project in Australia, the Wall Street Journal (sub required) reports.
Citing an un-named source, WSJ says Xstrata may sell a 20% stake in the proposed mine, located east of Wandoan township in Queensland:
Xstrata owns 75% of Wandoan in Queensland state’s Surat Basin and is seeking to share development risk with a new strategic partner, which would also earn offtake rights to at least a fifth of the thermal coal produced from the open-cut mine, the person said. Wandoan’s minority shareholders are Japan’s Itochu Corp. and Sumitomo Corp., which each own 12.5% of the project.
According to its website, Xstrata says the open-cut thermal coal project, which includes a mine, coal handling plant and support facilities, would have a 30-year life and produce about 30 million run of mine tonnes per annum.
The project received an environmental approval from the Queensland government in 2010 and a conditional environmental approval from the federal government last year.
Xstrata and commodities giant Glencore announced earlier this month an all-share merger that would create a $90-billion mining company to be named “Glencore Xstrata International PLC”.
