"(The move has sparked rumours that BHP Billiton, which...

"(The move has sparked rumours that BHP Billiton, which abandoned its $US66 billion hostile bid for Rio last year, is planning a fresh a counter-attack on Rio in an attempt to head off Chinalco.

The combination of BHP and Rio's mines in the ore-rich Pilbara would unlock billions of dollars in cost savings.)"

abc1800,

These have been my thoughts since it was announced that RIO was going to sell some of it's stakes to Chinalco, but I wasn't going to say anything because they were only my feelings.

I thought that BHP wasn't going to take it laying down, especially since it made a T/O offer before, which was rejected by RIO, and subsequently BHP walked away from it because of the huge debt that RIO faced.

But what is going to stop BHP making a move again now, especially when it has already received the Government's blessing to do so??.

IMHO, I would think that if BHO would come out from left field and make an offer of say 2 to 2.5 BHP shares per each RIO shares, the shareholders will give the offer some very serious thoughts.

After all BHP does not like the Chinese to interfere with the iron ore prices, and if they let Chinalco get a foothold in the Australian Iron Ore Industry, they could suffer too because of future pricing that could be restrained and controlled by the Chinese for their own benefits.

My opinion only, but I think it has some merits.

Buddy