great value at 1.12, page-12

Spot on Lord Elpus. You may remember the bidding war over North Ltd, whose most attractive asset was the Robe iron ore division. A further asset of course was the 68% owned ERA which held the Ranger mine and Jabiluka deposit. Via attrition it ended in a bidding war between Rio and Anglo. As the Robe assets were located near Rio's railway and port infrastructure, they won the bidding war.

Interestingly there was a sense of desperation from Rio last year when they prematurely/erroneously announced that the Mirarr people (traditional owners of the Ranger and Jabiluka areas)looked like they would give consent to the go ahead for the Jabiluka mine. Rio would save a fortune if they could bring on J before Ranger was decommissioned/wound down. They would have simply built a haul road from J to the existing Ranger facility.

If the EXT deposits are within economic haulage distance from the Rossing mill, the synergies/cost savings would be substantial, giving Rio a substantial advantage in any potential bidding war for EXT.