Beny Steinmetz Suing Rio Tinto, George Soros

The legal fight follows BSG Resources losing its rights to a multibillion-dollar iron mine in Guinea.

Israeli diamond tycoon Beny Steinmetz's mining company BSG Resources Ltd. plans to file a multibillion-dollar lawsuit in the London High Court against investor George Soros and mining giant Rio Tinto, The Sunday Times reported.
 
BSG Resources will claim in the lawsuit that Soros and Rio Tinto conspired to deprive the company of its rights to the mine.

"The lawsuit is expected to allege that Rio Tinto formed a conspiracy with Soros and [human rights NGO] Global Witness, a campaign group funded by him, to force Steinmetz out of the Simandou project in Guinea," The Sunday Times reported.

In early May, in the statement of claim filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rio Tinto accuses BSG Resources and Brazil's Vale SA of conspiracy to steal its rights in Guinea's Simandou iron ore concession.

In April, Guinea President Alpha Conde revoked BSG Resources' rights to the Simandou mine, after a Guinean government inquiry concluded that Steinmetz and Vale acquired them through corruption under previous dictatorships.