A Swiss criminal court will rule on Friday whether Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz is guilty of corruption and forgery charges in one of the mining world's most high-profile legal disputes.
The battle for control of the world's richest untapped deposits of iron ore, buried in the remote Simandou mountain range of Guinea, has triggered probes and litigation around the world and thwarted efforts to extract the lucrative commodity.
Steinmetz, who made his name in the diamond business before turning to Simandou, was indicted in August 2019 by a Geneva prosecutor.
The prosecutor accused Steinmetz and two aides of paying, or having paid, $10 million in bribes to obtain exploration permits for Simandou and of forging documents to cover it up through a web of shell companies and bank accounts. They deny the charges.