RIOCD Rio Tinto Ltd

By Adriano Marchese

--Rio Tinto defends right to call a joint venture management meeting despite protests from Star Diamond.

--Rio Tinto claims courts denied Star Diamond from preventing a management meeting call in late June.

Anglo-Australian metals and mining company Rio Tinto PLC said Thursday that it does have the right to call a management committee meeting of a joint venture after Star Diamond Corp. claimed it couldn't on the grounds that the joint venture wasn't validly formed.

"Star Diamond's latest attempt to prevent Rio Tinto from exercising that right was denied by the court on June 24," a Rio Tinto spokesperson said.

Earlier on Thursday, Star Diamond said that Rio Tinto didn't have the right to call or hold a meeting of the joint venture management committee and that the joint venture hadn't been validly formed in November 2019.

According to Star Diamond statements made in November 2019, the Canadian mineral-properties exploration and development company was notified by Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. that it exercised its option to the joint venture agreement entered into in 2017 in which Rio Tinto could earn up to a 60% interest in the Star-Orion South diamond project.

In February 2020, Star Diamond said in a statement that a review by a special committee found that the exercise of the options didn't comply with the terms of the agreement.

On Thursday, Star Diamond said it sent a letter to Dave Andrews, head of exploration growth and innovation at Rio Tinto, in which it claimed the Rio Tinto misused its "economic clout to misappropriate from Star Diamond and its shareholders" a significant portion of the value of the purported joint venture project.

"Star Diamond has also advised Rio Tinto that any attempt to hold such a meeting, or to approve any work plan or budget or make any other decision on behalf of the purported joint venture, will in Star Diamond's view be invalid," the company said.

"Rio Tinto disagrees with Star Diamond's interpretations in all material respects," the Rio Tinto spokesperson responded.

The Star-Orion South diamond project is located in Saskatchewan, part of the Fort a la Corne mineral dispositions.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 08, 2021 14:17 ET (18:17 GMT)

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