4 Rio Tinto workers detained in China
BEIJING — Four employees of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd., including an Australian man, have been detained in Shanghai for undisclosed reasons, the company and government officials said Wednesday.
Rio Tinto has been unable to contact the employees, said Ian Head, a company spokesman in Sydney. He said it has asked Chinese authorities the reason for the detention but has received no response.
Australian diplomats in Shanghai were urgently seeking access to the Australian man, the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement. It said it could not comment on reasons for the detention and did not identify the man.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper identified the Australian as Stern Hu and said the other three employees were Chinese nationals. It said the four were members of Rio Tinto’s iron ore sales team. The paper cited no sources.
Rio Tinto declined to disclose the names or personal details of the employees.
“Rio Tinto intends to co-operate fully with any investigation the Chinese authorities may wish to undertake and has sought clarification on what has occurred,” the company said in a statement. “Rio Tinto is concerned about the employees’ wellbeing and is doing everything possible to help them and support their families.”
A spokesman for the Shanghai police, who would give only his surname, Liang, told The Associated Press that he had no information on the case.
Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, is acting as lead negotiator for global iron ore suppliers in price talks with Chinese mills.
The two sides failed to reach agreement by the June 30 expiration of previous buying contracts. China’s steel industry association, representing for the country’s mills, rejected prices negotiated by Rio Tinto with Japanese and Korean mills.
The other major suppliers are Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. and Brazil’s Vale SA.
China criticized Rio Tinto and the Australian government last month after the company abandoned a deal to have state-controlled Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, invest $19.5 billion in Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto, which is traded on stock exchanges in London and Sydney, launched a rights issue to raise money instead. Chinalco took up a $15.2 billion portion of that issue to maintain its 9 percent stake in the company.
The Chinese steel industry group also has criticized Rio Tinto’s plan to form a joint venture with Billiton combining their mining assets in western Australia. The group said the tie-up might reduce competition, raise prices and hurt customers.
China’s Commerce Ministry said the breakup of the Rio Tinto-Chinalco deal would not harm Beijing’s ties with Australia. But a ministry spokesman warned that the deal with Billiton might face an anti-monopoly investigation by Chinese authorities.
Associated Press Writer Rohan Sullivan in Sydney and Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing contributed to this report.
Rio Tinto Ltd.: www.riotinto.com
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