Australia’s Blackstone Minerals has said it intends to follow through on plans to participate in an auction of concessions on a rare earth mine in northern Vietnam, even though its local partner was arrested last week, The Investor is reporting. Last week, Blackstone and Vietnam Rare Earth JSC (VTRE), the owners of Vietnam’s only rare earth processing plant, announced they would team up to bid on said concessions. Just days later, however, Reuters reported that six members of the VTRE team had been arrested on tax-related charges.
See also: Vietnam rare earth mining firm finds Australian development partner