History Of the Group

History of the Group

            The Company was founded in April 2005 by Graeme Hossie (the current Chief Executive) and ChrisBrown, after it secured an option to acquire a private Canadian company, Hammersmyth ManagementLtd, which owned 100% of the Isua magnetite iron ore deposit in Greenland. The option was exercised,and the Company acquired the exploration licence in October 2005. In December 2005, the Companysecured an option to acquire the Marampa iron ore mine in Sierra Leone. A mining lease for theMarampa mine was assigned to a subsidiary of the Company in September 2006.

In May 2007, the Company completed the acquisition of Minas Itatiaiuçú Ltda, a Brazilian producer ofiron ore, for an overall purchase price of USD89 million (including USD24 million deferredconsideration). In October 2007, the Company completed its listing on the Oslo Axess market of the Oslo Børs.

In January 2008, the Company announced that it was forming a 50/50 joint venture company, Saudi London Iron Ltd, with Saudi-based National Mining Company to develop the Wadi Sawawin iron ore project near the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia.

In August 2008, the Company announced an investment in the coal industry through its purchase of a minority stake in South African based DMC Coal Mining Ltd and the issue of a loan to DMC Energy (Pty) Ltd secured on 28% of the issued shares of its parent company.

Also in August 2008, following a strategic review of the Brazilian operations, the Company completedthe sale of its Brazilian assets to a member of the ArcelorMittal Group for a total consideration of 11 USD810 million. USD68 million of the proceeds of the sale were used to redeem bonds issued by the Company in April 2007 to finance the acquisition. A further GBP219 million of the proceeds was returned to shareholders in November 2008.

In September 2008, the Company made a further investment in the coal sector through the purchase of a minority stake in International Coal Company Limited, a coal exploration and development company in Colombia.

In April 2009, the Company’s 50/50 joint venture company, China Global Mining Resources (BVI) Limited, completed the acquisition of a Chinese domestic iron ore mine and processing plant. The mine is near Maanshan in the Anhui Province and the plant is in the Jiangsu Province in the People’s Republic of China.