Beny Steinmetz Loses Latest Round in $2.1bn Vale Battle

Diamond billionaire Beny Steinmetz has lost the latest round of a legal battle with Brazilian mining giant Vale.

He challenged an order by a US court to comply with discovery requests relating to a $2.1bn arbitration award, but his motion was denied.

BSG Resources (Beny Steinmetz Group Resources) embarked on a joint venture with Vale to extract iron ore for steelmaking from the vast Simandou resource, in southern Guinea.

But the Guinea government concluded that mining rights had been obtained through bribery, and in 2019 a British court awarded Vale a sum that with costs and interest now amounts to $2.1bn.

BSGR is now in administration. Vale is seeking documentary proof that Steinmetz was more than just an "external advisor" to the company, as he has claimed, in which case it aims to target his assets for the award.

A New York judge ruled on Monday that Steinmetz should have filed his objections far sooner and rejected his claim.

In February a Swiss court convicted Steinmetz, 64, an Israeli citizen, of paying $8.5m in bribes to an ex-wife of Guinea's former president to secure the iron ore mining rights.