yeah its a no brainer, but not in the way you are thinkingchina...

yeah its a no brainer, but not in the way you are thinking

china aren't going to get in a bidding war at this stage. if they wait until after mitsubishi wrap up the project China will have the leverage (the $$$'s). they aren't going to needlessly overpay now, just so MMX shareholders are happy

given the project cost vs. purchase price, its like a classic farm-in type arrangement. Mitsubishi will likely only want (and only get) from China recovery of costs to date, the main Chinese input will be the actual funding contribution in the future

at this stage, the resource and even OPR are worth little, if any, more than costs to date. in situ iron ore is pretty much worthless, the real value is in the transport infrastructure and logistics