Rio Tinto soars after rejecting $142bn BHP approach

By Nick Clark

Published: 09 November 2007

 

BHP Billiton is expected to return with an improved offer for Rio Tinto after the UK-based mining giant rejected a $142bn all-share approach that would create one of the largest companies in the world.

BHP, which has its headquarters in Melbourne, revealed yesterday it had approached the Rio board in the past two weeks outlining a “potential combination with Rio Tinto on terms incorporating a premium”.

Rumours of the “mega merger” between the world’s first and third largest mining groups have repeatedly circulated the market this year and BHP confirmed yesterday in a regulatory statement that it had made an indicative bid.

Shares in Rio Tinto, which is listed in London and Australia, leapt 21 per cent to a record 5,296p, valuing the company at $144bn last night. BHP shares fell 5.6 per cent to 1,656p.

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BURSON-MARSTELLER: PR FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER

This PR firm has a office in Auckland, and owns the PR group Acumen with offices in Auckland and Wellington. They have done projects for Comalco and Rio Tinto. It is very likely that they will be hired to push for Seabed mining consents and other mining projects in NZ.
Considering the fact that this firm was the firm that brought Bush /Cheney to power, realise that this is the PR firm from hell.

By: Carmelo Ruiz

The public relations (PR) business is one of the fastest growing industries in the global market economy. In order to face perils like labor unions, organized consumer activists and environmental groups, governments and corporations have come to rely more on slick PR campaigns. The peril to popular democracy posed by PR firms should not be underestimated. Using the latest communications technologies and polling techniques, as well as an array of high-level political connections, PR flacks routinely “manage” issues for government and corporate clients and “package” them for public consumption. The result is a “democracy” in which citizens are turned into passive receptacles of “disinfotainment” and “advertorials” and in which critics of the status quo are defined as ignorant meddlers and/or dangerous outsiders.

Burson-Marsteller (B-M) is the world’s largest PR firm, with 63 offices in 32 countries and almost $200 million in income in 1994. Although its name is unknown to most people– even to many in activist circles– B-M is fast becoming an increasingly important cog in the propaganda machine of the new world order.

Human Rights, Anyone?

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Titanium or Water? Trouble brews in Southern India

Titanium is also part of the Blacksands attraction. 

by Nityanand Jayaraman

More than 5,000 people converged this month in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to protest a deal that set the stage for the state government to appropriate almost 10,000 acres of land and hand it over to Tata Steel Corporation, a subsidiary of India’s largest conglomerate. The June 2007 agreement allows the giant company to mine ilmenite in Sathankulam, an agrarian pocket of India’s coastal countryside.

This ilmenite, when processed, yields titanium metal and titanium dioxide (TiO2), both extremely valuable products. But many locals are refusing to sell out of concern that the ilmenite mining operations and loss of land will destroy their traditional way of life and despoil the environment. At least 40 percent of the population — the landless and those engaged in household industries — depend on farming palmyra trees for subsistence or supplemental income.

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Iron Mountain, BHP, Fortescue Rise; Iron Ore Price to Soar 50% in 2008

And in the tenth month of 2007, the bull market brings forth Iron Mountain Mining, Ltd. (ASX:IRM) and sends its shares up 300% in one day.

 IRM was just one of many shares storming to new highs yesterday, as the ASX/200 made an all time intra-day high of 6,684. Iron Mountain announced high grade mineralisation at its Mt. Richardson iron project in West Australia. In its price-sensitive release to the ASX, the company said that “The Iron Mountain Prospect rock chip samples averaged 61.3% Iron (Fe) over two kilometers of strike.”

The company announced results from two-other drilling simples. Both indicated high-grade haematite iron mineralisation. Which is another way of saying….eureka! Except in this case, rather than finding real gold, Iron Mountain has found industrial gold…the raw material desired by Chinese steel mills.

And at the upper end of the share-market, Fortescue (ASX:FMG) and BHP (ASX:BHP) both continue their relentless climbs higher. Fortescue is now the 23rd largest company in Australia by market cap, despite the fact it has yet to deliver any product to customers or make a profit. The catalyst for yesterday’s 8% lurch higher was legal. BHP lost its appeal against a ruling that allows Fortescue access to BHP’s Mt. Newman railway line in the Pilbara.

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The selling off of Canada

By MICHAEL HARRISAt what point does Canada become a toy country?

In August, the last of the major Canadian steel makers was sold to United States Steel Corporation for $1.1 billion. Earlier, Dofasco was sold to a European company which has since been swallowed up by Mittal Steel Co. of India.

This latest foreign takeover is just one in a list that is becoming longer than the Canadian winter. Canadian mining giant Inco Ltd., is now owned by Brazil’s CVRD, and Falconbridge Ltd. of Sudbury — which Inco tried unsuccessfully to acquire — is the property of Xstrata, a Swiss-based company. The combined selling price for these two famous Canadian companies was $38 billion.

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BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto Acquisitions Depend on Metals Prices, Demand

Posted by Dan Denning on Jun 19th, 2007

Now that South African Marius Kloppers is running Australian-icon BHP (ASX:BHP), is he more interested in Canadian aluminium producer Alcan (NYSE:AL) or America’s own Alcoa (NYSE:AA)? Or should he be more interested in his own shares?

Kloppers does not exactly have the same problem David Neal has at the Future Fund. Neal has to invest the money in something to offset a future liability. He cannot return cash to public pensioners.

BHP, on the other hand, does not have to make an acquisition. In February the company bought back nearly US$13 billion in its own shares. Chip Goodyear decided the best use of cash was to return it to the shareholders in the form of a buy-back.

Whether the new regime at BHP – or Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) for that matter – decides to pursue major acquisitions depends on where they think we are in the commodity cycle. If you think we’re at the top of the cycle, where prices are more likely to decline than increase, you return cash to shareholders, or save it for a rainy day when assets are on sale for cheap. Or, cashed-up from years of bumper profits, you see consolidation in the sector as the big fish buy the little fish, and prices for metals gradually (or not so gradually) decline back to cyclical lows.

But BHP and Rio must think there is more life to the boom yet. We don’t know what their price forecasts for base metals are. But we do know nearly everyone on the planet has been surprised and taken a bit off guard by the strength and persistence of metals demand from China and the emerging world and is rushing to meet the demand with new resources.

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Rio Tinto says receives approval to buy Alcan

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Global miner Rio Tinto Ltd/Plc (RIO.L)(RIO.AX) said on Monday it has received U.S. anti-trust clearance for its $38.1 billion acquisition of aluminum maker Alcan Inc (AL.TO).

The U.S. approval follows the province of Quebec’s government approval for the takeover earlier this month.Rio formally launched a pre-agreed offer for Montreal-based Alcan in July, trumping an earlier hostile offer by U.S. rival Alcoa (AA.N).

Rob Zaleski: Anti-mining activist Churchill writes last warning

Rob Zaleski  —  8/27/2007 9:19 am

The whole idea never made sense to Roscoe Churchill.

Why would Wisconsin, with its rich abundance of lakes and forests, even consider opening its door to the mining industry? the retired elementary school principal from Ladysmith would ask.

Why jeopardize all that, he’d say, for an industry with a truly wretched past — as evidenced by the scarred landscapes of northern Minnesota and Michigan’s U.P.?

And nobody knew more about the industry’s misdeeds than Churchill and his wife Evelyn, who spent many summers in the 1970s and ’80s checking out mine sites throughout the United States and Canada.

“If there’s an open pit mine that hasn’t caused major pollution, I’d like the (Wisconsin) Department of Natural Resources to show me where it is,” he grumbled in 1991, shortly after the DNR approved permits that allowed the Flambeau Mining Co. — a subsidiary of Utah-based Kennecott Minerals Co. and British mining giant Rio Tinto — to build a 32-acre open pit copper mine near the Flambeau River in northwestern Wisconsin.

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Rio Tinto More Appealing Than BHP Billiton, Fortescue

Posted by Dan Denning on Jun 21st, 2007

It sure seems like a crazy summer already in North America. June 21 is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This morning we read about a crowd in Austin, Texas pulling a man out of his car and beating him to death, after the car accidentally bumped into a four- year-old girl. Mobs are dangerous things, and not just in parking lots or at public spectacles.

In our on-line poll of which stock is the best to own for the next five years, “Other” has been overtaken by Fortescue in late-night voting. We thought it was an interesting exercise in taking the mood of the public. It’s not an exact science, though.

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the international association of business and parliament

I found this really cosy get together of  business people and Politicians.
Helen Clark next to the CEO of Rio Tinto Aluminium NZ; Tom Campbell on one of the Photos.

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MECHANISMS OF CORPORATE RULE

MECHANISMS OF CORPORATE RULETony Clark

The men who run global corporations are the first in history with the organisation, technology, money, and ideology to make a credible try at managing the world as an integrated economic unit.

Richard J. Barnett and Ronald E. Mueller, Global Reach

In the twenty-odd years since these words were penned, transnational corporations (TNCs) have consolidated their power and control over the world. Today, 47 of the top 100 economies are actually transnational corporations, 70 percent of global trade is controlled by a just 500 corporations, and a mere one per cent of the TNCs on this planet own half the total stock of foreign direct investment. At the same time, the new free market and free trade regimes (eg. GATT, NAFTA) have created global conditions in which transnational corporations and banks can move their capital, technology, goods, services – freely throughout the world unfettered by the regulations of nation states or democratically elected governments.

In effect, what has taken place is a massive shift in power, out of the hands of nation states and democratic governments and into the hands of transnational corporations and banks. It is now the TNCs that effectively rule and govern the lives of the vast majority of the people on earth. Yet, these new world realities are seldom reflected in the strategies of citizen movements for democratic social change. All too often, strategies are primarily aimed at changing government policies while the real power being exercised by the TNCs behind the scenes is rarely challenged, let alone dismantled. And when the operations of TNCs become the prime target for citizen action campaigns, there is a tendency to employ a more or less piecemeal approach to what is a deeply systemic problem.

As we approach the 21st century, it is imperative that social movements in both the North and the South develop a new politics for challenging the dominant global rule of transnational enterprises.

The following are some of the salient ingredients of the new powers that now give corporations effective control over the lives of peoples and nations in this age of globalisation, and then some suggestions as to changing the situation.

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Public want set nets ban to protect dolphins

The New Zealand public wants a set nets ban and the establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary to protect the critically endangered maui’s dolphin.

Public consultation undertaken by Forest and Bird, centred in Auckland, Waikato and Northland, has found almost total support for a set net ban (98 percent) to protect maui’s dolphins.

There was also strong support for the establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary off the northwest coast of the North Island, with 96 percent of respondents supporting a sanctuary to protect the dolphins.

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Forest and Bird conservation advocate Kirstie Knowles said today the strong public support for a set net ban and to establish a marine mammal sanctuary for maui’s dolphin meant the Government should include those measures in its threat management plan to protect maui’s and hector’s dolphins.

A short history of Rio Tinto Mining abuses

mining_2001_04_27_rio1.pdf

Videos

The corporation

If you want to know what a corporation is and what it means for us as a people tha watch this!!

Rio Tinto looks to create monster

Saturday July 14, 2007
By Tom Cahill and Simon CaseyRio Tinto group chief executive Thomas Albanese says he’s buying Alcan before the competition beats him to it.

“You ask the question of why now?” Albanese told investors during a conference in Montreal. “This is competitive. There aren’t that many top-quality, global resources in any of the mining sectors that are available.”

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Rio Tinto: practise what you preach!

The efforts of UK-based mining company Rio Tinto to convince the world of its commitment to human rights have suffered another blow. According to media reports, in December, the family of human rights defender and poet Wiji Thukul rejected a human rights award funded by the company. For the past two years, Rio Tinto has contributed funds to the Yap Thiam Hien Human Rights Award, won this year by Wiji Thukul, who has been missing since 1996. The family said they refused the award because Rio Tinto was involved in several human rights violations at its mining operations in Indonesia and was responsible for the 1992 arrest of demonstrators who were demanding proper compensation for the use of their land.

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World mining giant targets North Island

By Wayne Thompson 

One of the world’s largest mining companies has begun an airborne survey of 1200sq km of mineral-rich ironsand deposits along the west coast of the North Island.
The Rio Tinto company is managing the hunt for iron and other metals in a joint-venture with Iron Ore New Zealand, which won the prospecting permit from the Crown Minerals Group in the Ministry of Energy.
As the survey aircraft yesterday flew low and slow over the permit area – at Mokau, north Taranaki and the west coast of south Auckland – iwi and environmental groups and the Auckland Regional Council scrambled for more information about the venture.
Fears were expressed for the impact of any dredging on the maui’s dolphin, a species considered critically endangered, found only off the west coast from Northland to New Plymouth.
Ngati Te Ata environment manager Karl Flavell said he had scant information about the prospecting.
“We have not been consulted although we are the tribal authority for the area from Manukau Heads to Maioro, the north side of Port Waikato Heads.”

ARC environment chairman Dianne Glenn said she raised three chief concerns about the prospecting at this week’s council meeting. “As a result the ARC will write to the Government’s conservation, economic development and fisheries ministers.
“One of our concerns is that the maui’s dolphin has a particularly strong presence in the permit area – the Waikato River mouth to Manukau Harbour.
“We are also concerned at extra erosion of the coast if there is extraction of sand.”
Mrs Glenn said another concern was any mining interference with the build up of the Auckland construction industry’s future sand supplies in the Kaipara Harbour. A further concern was the effect of sand extraction on Franklin’s surf beaches – Sunset Beach, at Port Waikato and Karioitahi.
Kiwis Against Sand Mining spokesman (Kasm) Bill McNatty said he felt the Rio Tinto joint venture was more “ominous” than previous seabed prospecting bids on the west coast because of the powerful company’s environmental record in its operations internationally.
Kasm raised 15,000 signatures for a petition calling for a blanket ban on ironsand mining of the seabed. The petition was presented to Parliament in February and is being considered by the Local Government and Environment Committee.
Mr McNatty said Kasm had sought information from Rio Tinto and it would make strong representations to Crown Minerals if the prospecting advanced to the next stage – applying for an exploration permit.
ARC coastal project leader Andrew Benson said the site within the Auckland Coastal Marine Area was about 480sq km, extending from the northern side of the Waikato River mouth along the Awhitu Peninsula to the South Head of Manukau Harbour.
The landward boundary of the prospecting area was the line of mean high-water mark. The offshore boundary was a line more or less parallel to the Awhitu Peninsula, 15km off shore.
Mr Benson said that the Auckland Regional Coastal Plan allowed prospecting that involved the taking of a small quantity of material, subject to conditions.
Coastal permits – a resource consent allowing prospecting activity – had not been sought.
However, the company advised they might take physical samples early next year and would then assess their need for coastal permits to provide for prospecting.
A spokeswoman for Rio Tinto Iron ore, Joanna McKenzie, said last night from Perth that the aircraft was conducting aeromagnetic surveys over sites in the permit area.
The company owns Comalco, which has the aluminium smelter at Bluff, in the South Island.
The survey conducted by Auckland-based Kiwi Air and Perth-based UTS Geophysics will take a fortnight and the survey plane will fly at a minimum of 20m above the sea and follows grid lines 200m apart.

Do we want Rio Tinto to tempt our politicians and military with huge bribes?

According to a 2005 article in the Times, Freeport which is a Rio Tinto subsidiary,  engaged in major bribing to be allowed to mine gold in a remote area in Papua.

As Rio Tinto ogles the seabed along the entire west coast of the North island we must ask ourselves the question; do we want these people to operate in New Zealand? Do we want to open green New Zealand to a major mining company that has a huge record of human and environmental abbuse, and that even though it projects itself as a reponsable cooperate citizen continues along the same lines, and shows in all it’s actions that it is not? Do we want these companies to corrupt us, our politicians, our military?

Inform yourself read this article here

Rio Tinto New: New one same as the old

Rio Tinto projects itself as a responsible cooperate world citizen.
But it has an impressive history of human rights abbuses, and environmental pollution dissasters.

In its 2003 Human rights declaration it states that they work according to the internation declaration of human rights, but according to Amnesty UK the abuse still goes on. Read about it here  

Rio Tinto finally get’s what it had coming

Fighting Corporate Copper in Bougainville
Multinational polluter Rio Tinto sued under Alien Tort Claims Act for causing deaths of 10,000 Papua New Guineans

Read the entire article here