Yesterday’s news contained the juicy tidbit that Rio Tinto, currently embroiled in a row with Chinese authorities over the detention of several of its employees in China, may have overcharged steelmakers for iron ore to the tune of US$1 billion. Don’t follow Australian investors and dump your Rio stock quite yet, though: It turns out the accusations were made on pretty shaky grounds by a guy who isn’t even connected to the case. Baseless they may be, but they’ve no doubt caused a good deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth over at Yanzhou Coal Mining and Felix Resources. The two companies have come to an agreement for Yanzhou to take over the Australian miner of metallurgical coal, but the deal still needs approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board. We’ll find out soon enough if the ill-will generated by the Rio Case spills over into other resource deals. On the energy side, Chinese companies are looking busy. China National Petroleum Corp and CNOOC are said to be hoping to purchase Argentinian oil firm YPF from its parent for at least US$17 billion, and American power giant Duke Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese power giant Huaneng to share cleaner coal technology.