Rio Tinto’s last roll of the dice to NZ govt - give us $60M

Thu, 12 Sep 2013

By Pattrick Smellie Sept 12 (BusinessDesk) – Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto failed to get open-ended government subsidies to lower its electricity and transmission costs, and made a last grab for $60 million rather than the $30 million taxpayer sweetener that sealed the deal. A series of memoes and emails released today on the Treasury website show matters came to a head in mid-July, when Rio told Treasury officials it had reached a final position with its supplier, state-owned Meridian Energy, but would seek government top-up...

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