Mongolia in Rio royalties standoff: "Mongolia expects to squeeze at least an extra $303 million out of Rio Tinto this year, as part of the royalties standoff that is threatening to stall development of the massive Oyu Tolgoi mine.
A World Bank analysis of the Mongolian government's 2013 budget found the nation was expecting a revenue boost of 445 billion tugriks to come from a renegotiation of the Oyu Tolgoi investment agreement struck with Rio and its subsidiaries in 2009.
Rio, which has rejected any attempt to renegotiate the agreement, made reference to Mongolia's latest push for more royalties on Tuesday, when it announced a cost blowout and redesign of the massive copper and gold project.
''In its proposed 2013 budget, the government of Mongolia has included revenue from the application of a progressive royalty scheme to Oyu Tolgoi. However, the investment agreement provides a stabilised royalty rate of 5 per cent over the life of the agreement,'' said Rio subsidiary Turquoise Hill Resources."
'via Blog this'
