Rio wants to meet Guinea govt on iron ore project

LONDON (Reuters) - Mining group Rio Tinto is seeking a meeting with the new military junta in Guinea to discuss its $6 billion Simandou iron ore project, the firm said on Monday.

Rio -- the world's fourth biggest diversified mining group by market value -- had been locked in a dispute about Simandou with the previous government of President Lansana Conte, who died last week, sparking a military coup.

"One of main priorities is that we want to fix up a meeting with the new government as soon as possible to discuss the situation," spokesman Nick Cobban said.

On Saturday, the military junta led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara in the West African state said "defective" mining contracts would be revised, without naming firms or projects.

On December 11, Rio said it had received a letter from the Mines Ministry indicating the government planned to withdraw Rio's rights to the northern portion of the huge Simandou concession.

Later, a company belonging to Israeli diamond trader Beny Steinmetz said it had obtained the rights to north Simandou.

Rio Tinto, the world's No. 2 iron ore miner, has repeatedly vowed to fight to retain rights to the entire Simandou project, which it has described as the world's biggest known undeveloped iron ore deposit.

The firm had said it was deferring all non-essential spending on the project for 2009 until it could verify its licence, but still planned to spend $58 million between January and April.

"Our position really is the same, that we still we have a valid claim there," Cobban said, who added that prospecting work on the site had been continuing.

"Of course this is the Christmas break, but we have been drilling. Work is continuing there."

The company had forecast that Simandou's production would begin in 2013 at 8 million tonnes, rising to 70 million tonnes by 2018. Rio Tinto says it has already spent $400 million on Simandou.