Brazil’s Vale drops $1.2 bln claim in Steinmetz dispute

Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz leaves a courthouse in Geneva, Switzerland January 22, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Brazilian mining firm Vale SA (VALE3.SA) has dropped a $1.2 billion declare in opposition to people and entities linked to Israeli-born billionaire Beny Steinmetz, the miner stated in a press release on Monday.

Vale and Steinmetz have been locked in a multi-pronged authorized battle for years ensuing from a failed mining three way partnership in Guinea. On the coronary heart of the dispute is whether or not Steinmetz’s mining group, BSGR, obtained the rights to the Simandou iron ore deposit in that nation by fraudulent means, fees which Steinmetz has denied.

Within the assertion, Vale stated the choice to drop the case was based mostly on purely technical grounds and that the corporate continued to pursue parallel litigation in opposition to BSGR.

“Vale’s initiative to file a discover to discontinue this particular fraud course of, in opposition to people and two entities linked to BSGR, relies eminently on procedural grounds, following the recommendation from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, answerable for the case, linked to a doable statute of limitations argument that the declare in opposition to these defendants may be time-barred,” Vale stated.

Representatives for Steinmetz couldn’t instantly be reached for remark exterior regular enterprise hours.

In a press release to the Monetary Instances, nevertheless, he stated that Vale’s causes to drop the case go “effectively past limitations.”

“We’ve lots to say and can wait till now we have obtained a ultimate judgment on Tuesday, fifteenth February,” he was quoted as saying within the newspaper.

Reporting by Gram Slattery, Enhancing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.