Australian mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto might revise or postpone their proposed iron ore joint venture, which is planned to merge the Pilbara operations of the two companies.
A postponement is expected to provide more time for the Australian government to set the terms of a planned mining tax, a Wall Street Journal report said on September 30.
It is also suggested that the two mining companies may also wait for iron ore prices to decrease further to foil the claims that the planned venture would increase global prices. One possibility would be limiting the iron ore produced under the joint venture, the report by the American newspaper said.
The BHP Billiton-Rio Tinto JV, proposed in December 2009, looks to achieve integration of the companies' entire production activities in Western Australia, a venture worth US$116 billion.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the European Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are among the institutions investigating the proposed joint venture.
Meanwhile, another report said that ACCC has all the information it needs to rule on the planned joint venture, citing Graeme Samuel, chairman of the institution.
"We've been ready for some time, but they don't want us to make a decision," Samuel was quoted as saying by Bloomberg newswires, stressing that BHP and Rio Tinto "own the process."