Marta Nogueira and Gram Slattery

RIO DE JANEIRO – A claim for $1.2 billion against persons and entities that are connected to Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz has been dropped by Brazilian mining firm Vale SA (NYSE :). This statement was made Monday.

Steinmetz and Vale have been engaged in an extensive legal dispute for many years. This is a result of a failing mining joint venture in Guinea. The dispute centers on whether Steinmetz’s mining company, BSGR obtained rights to Simandou’s iron ore deposits in the nation through fraudulent means. Steinmetz denies these charges.

Vale claimed that Vale’s decision to dismiss the case was based solely on technical grounds, and that parallel litigation with BSGR continued.

“Vale’s initiative to file a notice to discontinue this specific fraud process, against individuals and two entities linked to BSGR, is based eminently on procedural grounds, following the advice from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, in charge of the case, linked to a possible statute of limitations argument that the claim against those defendants might be time-barred,” Vale said.

Steinmetz representatives could not be reached immediately for comment after normal business hours.

He stated however that Vale’s motivations for dropping the case were “well beyond limitation” in an interview with the Financial Times.

He was quoted in the newspaper as saying, “We have much to say. We will wait until our final judgment on Tuesday 15 February.”