Rio Tinto sues Australia's Monadelphous over fire at iron-ore facility

Global miner Rio Tinto on Monday said it has initiated proceedings against a unit of engineering contractor Monadelphous Group over a fire that occurred last year at its iron ore processing facility at Western Australia. A Rio spokesperson confirmed the suit after Monadelphous said in a statement that it would contest a writ received from Rio. Monadelphous said it was separately informed by Rio that the claim is for A$493-million ($351-million), largely consisting of losses due to inability to process iron ore during the period of repair work at the facility.