Rio Tinto Ltd and Chinalco (中國鋁業), China’s largest alumina producer, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint venture to explore resources in China, the Anglo--Australian mining giant said.
The venture, in which Chinalco will hold a 51 percent stake, while Rio will take the remaining 49 percent, will “explore mainland China for world-class mineral deposits,” Rio said in a statement.
“The combination of skills provided by Rio Tinto and Chinalco offers great potential to unlock value for mutual benefit,” the statement quoted Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese as saying at a signing ceremony in Beijing.
The joint venture, expected to come into operations in the first half of next year, will start with three to five large exploration projects and potentially move to additional regions later on.
Rio will appoint the chief executive of the new venture, with the chairman of the five-member board nominated by Chinalco, according to the statement.
Chinalco is seeking to diversify from aluminum into other sectors such as coal, iron ore, rare earths and copper to become a global mining firm.
Chinalco’s listed unit Chalco and Rio Tinto in July signed a binding agreement to jointly develop a huge African iron ore field, with the Chinese company to invest US$1.35 billion in the project.
The deal is also the latest sign of a recovery in Rio’s relations with China, its biggest customer, after four of its staff were jailed in Shanghai for bribery and stealing commercial secrets earlier this year.
The case, which followed Rio’s decision to scrap a tie-up last year with Chinalco, its shareholder, rattled relations between Beijing and Canberra and stoked concern among foreign investors about the rule of law in China.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last