TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese trading house Mitsui said on Wednesday it would acquire a 40% interest in the Rhodes Ridge iron ore project in Australia for $5.34 billion.
Rhodes Ridge, operated by Rio Tinto, is one of the world’s largest undeveloped iron ore deposits with 6.8 billion tons of mineral resources, Mitsui said in a statement.
Mitsui said production was expected to start by 2030, and that its 40% interest would yield production of about 16 millions tons at the initial stage, and rise to more than 40 million tons after further expansion.
In the financial year that ended in March 2024, Mitsui’s annual equity share of iron ore production was 61 million tons, the company said.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)