Rio Tinto offers $2.7 bln to buy rest of Turquoise Hill stake

Rio Tinto RIO.AX on Monday proposed to buy 49% of Canada's Turquoise Hill TRQ.TO it does not already own for about $2.7 billion, as the Anglo-Australian miner looks to ramp up the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project in Mongolia.

The non-binding, C$34 per share offer represented a more than 32% premium to Turquoise Hill's Friday close, and follows Rio Tinto's settlement with the Mongolian government in January of a long-running dispute over the $6.93 billion expansion of the Oyu Tolgoi project.

"Rio Tinto strongly believes in the long-term success of Oyu Tolgoi and Mongolia... That is why we want to increase our interest in Oyu Tolgoi, simplify the ownership structure," the company said.