£369m mining buyout

STEEL tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is snapping up Europe’s largest aluminium smelter from mining giant Rio Tinto, for £369m.

His Liberty House says it plans to invest and develop the 570-worker plant in Dunkirk, France, potentially creating thousands more jobs. It marks the start of a planned £886m investment by Gupta’s GFG Alliance in France, to capitalise on the growing aluminium market.

Liberty is also bidding to buy Asco Industries, which has six operations in France, and bought Rio’s Lochaber smelter and assets in Scotland in 2016.