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Here are background notes that may be helpful as you have conversations on the Rio deal.

- Project - railroad (including tunnels and bridges). This project will be in the billions

- The technical bid is due January 13th and the financial offer February 13th

- OAS is on the shortlist to bid on the project

- As Chinalco (a Chinese firm) is part owner with Rio Tinto it's inevitable that some of the construction will go to the Chinese. The goal for OAS is to get Rio Tinto to decide to split up the construction and give some to OAS. OAS said with a project of this size it is not usually done by one company anyway. Two Chinese firms are on the short list, CRCC (who is in consortium with Chinalco, the owner) and Sinohydro, a major Chinese firm. Odebrecht, Vinci, and I believe Bouygoues are also on short list, OAS is competitive price wise with all of them.

- OAS is strong technically in this bid. A consortium has been formed with a construction firm with expertise in railroads in Africa.

- Need: A lot of heavy lifting has been done to put OAS in a strong position politically in Guinea, getting set up operationally in Guinea, and getting on the shortlist. What is needed now is the ability to get in the ear of the top executives at Rio Tinto and get them to support the idea of giving a piece of the deal to OAS. As it is a big project, even if they win a piece of the deal, the success fees will be large so there will be plenty to go around for all the parties currently involved.
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