To date, approximately $200 million has already been committed on the project, with major infrastructure being constructed at the mine and processing sites in PNG, while operational plant has already been ordered.

The project financing from Chinese banking institutions will account for approximately 40% of the project cost, with a further 30% being provided by way of a shareholder loan from the Chinese syndicate involved in the project, the remaining 30% as equity by the Chinese syndicate.

With this financing from China, the project will have 30% equity and 70% debt - with the debt being repaid over 10 years.

Highlands has 8.56% interest in the Ramu project which would increase to 11.30% at no additional cost to the Company after repayment of the debt raised to finance the project has been completed.

Sinosteel issues bidder statement for Midwest takeover

The largest iron ore trading company in China, state-owned Sinosteel Corporation, today issued its bidder''s statement for its $1.19 billion takeover bid for iron ore miner Midwest Corporation.

Sinosteel urged Midwest shareholders to consider the all-cash offer against several risks that they could face if the offer was not successful, in a statement released today.

The move is in direct disregard of Midwest''s call on March 19 to raise the $5.60-a-share bid to at least $7 a share, valuing Midwest at $1.49 billion.

Midwest is yet to issue a formal recommendation to its shareholders but advised them on March 14 to take no action until it had an opportunity to consider the offer. Midwest said the current offer undervalued the strategic and intrinsic value of its five projects in Western Australia.

Midwest''s shares have closed higher than the bid price since March 19 when chief executive Bryan Oliver told a media teleconference that Sinosteel''s bid was timed to avoid paying a fair value for the target''s projects. Midwest share rose 1.7%.

Strike forces BHP to declare force majeure

Mining giant, Rio Tinto today hinted that it might save $913 million over the life of loans it secured eight months ago because of the rapid drop in U.S. interest rates. The world''s third-biggest mining company is paying ``a few percentage points'''' less on $40 billion of loans it took to buy Alcan Inc in August. The news was first reported in Bloomberg and on News.com Web site in Australia.

Chief executive Tom Albanese told reporters that Rio''s interest rate is pegged to the three month U.S. dollar London interbank or the Libor rate, which has more than halved since Aug. 30.

On August 30 the Libor rate was 5.58% and it fell to 2.697% on March 28, the lowest since January 2005 according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Rio Tinto assumed $45 billion to acquire Alcan based in Canada for $38 billion.

Rio''s share fell 1.1%.