Iron Ore Holdings Sells Pilbara Asset To Rio Tinto For A$32 Million

Iron Ore Holdings Ltd. (IOH.AU), an iron ore explorer with assets in Western Australia's remote Pilbara region, said Tuesday it sold one site to mining giant Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) and is in talks with other parties on other tenements in the area.

The ASX-listed company said it has sold its Koodaideri South tenement to Rio's Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd. subsidiary for A$32 million in cash plus a 2% royalty on mined ore. Rio's offer was selected from a number of proposals, it said.

Koodaideri South is one of five tenements in Iron Ore Holdings' central satellite deposits, one of three areas the company is exploring in the iron ore-rich Pilbara. It said discussions continued with interested parties regarding the remaining central satellite tenements.

Anglo-Australian Rio is one of the world's largest producers of iron ore, with a network of 14 mines, three shipping terminals and a privately owned freight rail network in Australia. It has plans to boost its output capacity in the Pilbara by 50% to 333 million metric tons over five years to 2015.

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]