World Bank arm monitoring Rio Tinto’s payments probe in Guinea

The World Bank’s private investment arm said it’s monitoring the situation after Rio Tinto Group announced a probe into a $10.5-million payment connected to the Simandou iron-ore project in Guinea, West Africa. The International Finance Corp. is supporting efforts to identify funding for the project, including through plans for Rio Tinto to  hand over its stake to Aluminum Corp. of China, according to Frederick Jones, an IFC spokesperson. The World Bank arm became aware on Nov. 8 that Rio Tinto had notified the relevant authorities following an internal investigation into e-mail correspondence from 2011 relating to contractual payments made to a consultant providing advisory services on Simandou.