Glencore to buy Rio Tinto’s Hail Creek and Valeria coal projects for $1.7bn
Sydney — Glencore is buying Rio Tinto’s Hail Creek coal mine and the Valeria coal project in Australia for $1.7bn, tightening the Swiss trading and mining giant’s grip on coal as its rivals exit the industry. The acquisition, announced by both companies on Tuesday, follows Glencore’s purchase of half of Rio Tinto’s Hunter Valley coal operations, also in Australia, for $1.1bn last year in a deal with China’s Yancoal Australia. Glencore is already the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal used for power stations, and Hail Creek will give it a bigger stake in metallurgical coal used for steel making. "You’ve got one of the few big companies, in Glencore, that is both willing and able and clearly likes coal strategically and has been acquiring these assets," said Paul Gait, an analyst at Bernstein in London. The sale consists of Rio’s 82% interest in the Hail Creek operating mine and its 71.2% interest in the Valeria project, the company said in a statement. Rio Tinto made a strategi...
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