BSGR says Guinea seeking to seize its iron ore rights

Israeli mining firm BSGR said on Saturday the government of Guinea was seeking to "illegally seize" its assets through an investigation into how it won its rights to the West African state's Simandou iron ore deposit.

"This is the fifth and most clumsy attempt by an already discredited Government of Guinea in an ongoing campaign to illegally seize BSGR's assets," it said.

The Financial Times reported on Friday a government committee had launched a corruption probe into the award process for the blocks under a previous regime in 2008. The blocks had previously been stripped from Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto .

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing by Patrick Graham)