Rio Tinto lowers Riversdale bid acceptance terms

Rio Tinto has been looking to acquire mining companies to further strengthen its operations

Mining giant Rio Tinto has lowered its minimum acceptances target slightly in a last ditch effort to takeover South Africa's Riversdale Mining.

Rio's offer of 16.50 Australian dollars ($16.42; £10.14) is now conditional on 47% of shareholders accepting it by 6 April.

Previously its minimum target was 50%.

The move came after talks on the A$3.9bn offer between Rio and Riversdale major shareholder, Brazil's CSN.

If it fails to reach the new threshold, Rio Tinto will pay Riversdale shareholders only A$16 a share.

So far only 41% have said yes.

The other key shareholder in Riversdale is Tata Steel of India, which recently increased its stake to 27% and also has a director on the company's board.

CSN, Brazil's largest steelmaker, has also increased its Riversdale stake to 19.9%.