LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - EMED Mining, which plansto restart Spain's Rio Tinto copper mine, dismissed a potentialrival claim by trader Trafigura and said it clearly owned therights to tap the Andalusian deposit.
Its London shares up over 8 percent to 8.25 pence.
Trafigura, the world's third-biggest trader inraw materials and a rival investor in Spanish mining, earlierthis week said it had signed a purchase option agreement withComision liquidadora de Riotinto that could allow it to buy therights to Minas de Rio Tinto, the mine which gave its name to afirm that became conglomerate Rio Tinto .
Trafigura did not give details of the deal, but mediareports said the agreement could allow Trafigura to take overthe project if EMED failed to secure development permits.
London and Toronto-listed EMED, in a statement to themarket, dismissed the Trafigura deal and described the Comisionliquidadora de Riotinto as a private company in liquidationsince 2004.
"EMED Mining Public Limited confirms that its wholly ownedSpanish subsidiary ... is the legal owner of the Rio Tintomining rights, contrary to any implication made by a recentpress release from Trafigura," it said.
"EMED Mining remains focused on obtaining the permitsrequired prior to site start-up," it said, adding theenvironmental plan might be approved by the end of 2013.
Trafigura had no immediate further comment.
The commodities trader already owns the Minas de AguasTenidas project in Spain, representing an investment of 400million euros ($540 million) to date.
Miner Rio Tinto sold its majority stake in the project inthe 1950s and the remainder in later years. It was mothballed in2001, when copper prices sank, until EMED took an option overthe project and, later, ownership.
