Spot on Lord Elpus. You may remember the bidding war over North...

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.