Rio Tinto has had negotiations with Riversdale Mining Ltd regarding a takeover deal involving 3.55 billion Australian Dollars but has not yet given any formal offer. These statements were made by Riversdale on Monday. The shares of the mining firm went up by fifteen percent.

Riversdale has thirteen billion tons of thermal as well as coking coal resources in its Zambeze and Benga projects in the Southern African nation of Mozambique. The firm stated that Rio did not submit any formal proposal for the takeover but suggested to part with fifteen Australian dollars per share for the takeover. Rio Tinto did not comment further on this matter.

The indicative price quoted by Rio Tinto got outstripped very fast by the hike in Riverdale's stock to sixteen Australian dollars and twenty one cents and two of the major shareholders of the mining company have stated to Dow Jones Newswire that they are not going to sell out unless the indicative price reaches A$ 20.

Clive Donner, the managing director of LinQ Resources Fund (LRF. A. U.) the fourth largest shareholders of Riversdale stated that it is quite tough to come across firms in mining industry that are well endowed with this type of commodity in this kind of quantity. If one gets a firm like this then two third of the battle is won.

He stated that the A$15 is not the right price which they are gathering from the market. The share should be between A $15- A420 so A415 is the price on the lower side.

Another of the shareholders has emailed Dow Jones stating that the firm won't be parting with the shares less that A $20. The company's equity in that case will have a value of A$ 4.73 billion.