Tokyo | Rio Tinto has offered the Mongolian government $US295 million ($472 million) to settle a long-running tax dispute over the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, which it hopes to resolve amid speculation of a possible merger with Glencore.

Rio Tinto’s copper chief, Katie Jackson, wrote to Mongolia’s Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Tuvaan Tsevegdorj in December, proposing to resolve tax claims covering the period from 2013 to 2020, a source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the document was private, told The Australian Financial Review.