[miningmx.com] – THE sale of Palabora Copper by Rio Tinto received the approval of South Africa’s Competition Tribunal which means the asset will now be controlled by a Chinese consortium and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
Conditions on the sale of the asset had been applied earlier this week but were removed after it was agreed that sufficient supplies of dense medium separation iron ore would be made available to the South African market.
The issue was referred by the Competition Commission to its tribunal because it thought Palabora Copper and Foskor would be incentivised to look after their own supplies of DMS iron ore, a substance that is used to wash coal.
