For expand and develop mining project Rio Tinto, the biggest mining company, looking partner from Chinese. Rio is make plans looking partner mining company specialy mining company for steel and construction companies to help develop a $6bn (£3.08bn) West African iron ore mine.

Sam Walsh, head of Rio’s iron ore division, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the Simandou project in Guinea could eventually supply steelmakers in Europe and Asia with up to 170m tonnes of iron ore a year. The first phase of the mine’s development targets 70m tonnes a year by 2018.

“Europe is the natural market (for the Simandou ore), but there’s a lot of interest from Asia. One option would be to bring a Chinese partner into the project. Our preference would be to have a steel company that is allied to a construction company,” said Mr Walsh. The Chinese steelmaker would agree to buy a portion of Simandou’s output on a long-term “off-take” contract while a Chinese construction group would be valuable in making sure the mine is built on schedule and on budget, at a time of rising costs.

Rio Tinto is the world’s second largest producer of iron ore after Vale of Brazil, and plans to expand its output significantly in the next decade to take advantage of strong Chinese demand.

The bulk of its production comes from its huge mines in Western Australia’s iron-rich Pilbara region, but Rio is also looking for new sources of iron ore worldwide. The Simandou deposit was large and high-grade, said Mr Walsh, and Guinea had the potential to be “the third largest precinct for iron ore in the world” after Brazil and Australia. “The Simandou ore body is stunning.”

But Simandou lies 750km from the sea and the lack of infrastructure in the area will be a challenge. Rio will have to build a railway from scratch to transport the ore to the coast for export.

Mr Walsh said Rio had spent $300m on Simandou so far, out of a projected total cost of $6bn, and would make a final decision on whether to go ahead with the mine in 2009. He added that he hoped to make progress in finding Chinese partners for the project “this year”, so they could be involved in the design of the mine and the infrastructure.

China is Rio’s biggest customer and this year Chinalco, the Chinese metals group, shocked the market by buying a 9 per cent stake in Rio. Since then Rio has been increasingly talking about how it could co-operate with Chinese companies on new mining projects.

Rio has been emphasising the strength of its growth prospects – such as Simandou and the Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia – as part of its defence against a hostile takeover bid from rival BHP Billiton. It argues that BHP’s offer of 3.4 BHP shares for each Rio share does not reflect the strength of its project pipeline. But BHP recently hit out at this.

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