Coal news and updates

Rio Tinto completes Bengalla JV sale for $616.7 m

Rio Tinto has completed the sale of its 40% interest in the Bengalla coal joint venture in Australia to New Hope Corporation Limited for $616.7 million, the company announced on March 1.

With this, Rio Tinto has completed $4.7 billion of divestments (amount before finalisation of net debt and working capital adjustments) since January 2013.

The company further said that a change to the ownership structure of Coal & Allied completed on February 3, 2016, helped enable this transaction. Rio Tinto as a 100% owner of Coal & Allied receives all consideration associated with the sale of Rio Tinto’s interest in the Bengalla joint venture.

Earlier, on January 27, Rio Tinto had announced it had reached a binding agreement for the sale of Mount Pleasant to MACH Energy Australia for $224 million plus royalties. The sale is expected to close in the second half of 2016.