Rio Tinto offers $2.7 billion to buy rest of Turquoise Hill stake

A deal would pave the way for direct ownership of the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia

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LONDON — Rio Tinto proposed on Monday to buy the 49 per cent of Canada’s Turquoise Hill it does not already own for about US$2.7 billion, paving the way for direct ownership of the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project in Mongolia.

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The non-binding, all-cash $34 per share offer represents a more than 32 per cent premium to Turquoise Hill’s close on Friday. It comes after Rio Tinto’s settlement with the Mongolian government in January of a long-running dispute over the US$6.93 billion expansion of the Oyu Tolgoi project.

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