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                <p>MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Global miner Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) (RIO.L) raised its offer for Mozambique-focused coal miner Riversdale Mining (RIV.AX) to $3.9 billion to woo key shareholders who have held up the deal and gain control of coveted metallurgical coal assets.</p>
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Rio Tinto raised its offer price to A$16.50 per share on Thursday from A$16.00 and extended the offer period for the third time, to April 1, but said the new offer was its final one if there were no competing offers.</p>
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Shares of Australia-listed Riversdale jumped as much as 4 percent in early trade but eased back to trade up 1.8 percent at A$15.4, well below the offer price, indicating shareholders did not anticipate a rival offer and had some doubt Rio could gain the shares for the bid to go through.</p>
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Standing in Rio's way are India's Tata Steel (TISC.BO), the world's No. 7 steelmaker and top Brazilian steel producer CSN (CSNA3.SA), who have increase their stakes in Riversdale since the bid and now hold a combined 47 percent.</p>
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The two big shareholders alone do not have the votes to block Rio, which has built a 17 percent stake, but Rio would need nearly 100 percent acceptances from minority shareholders to override Tata Steel and CSN.</p>
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Tata Steel and CSN have both said they are mainly interested in securing coking coal from Riversdale and Tata, which already has a stake in Riversdale's Benga coking coal project in Mozambique, said it was talking to Rio about a range of options.</p>
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CSN has not publicly revealed its intention over the Riversdale stake or about its possible talks with Rio Tinto.</p>
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However, analysts said the two companies would probably like to see Rio Tinto, with deeper pockets and more technological skills than Riversdale, developing Riversdale's Mozambique mines and infrastructure.</p>
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At the same time the steelmakers might want the coal mine to remain out of Rio's hands, because they do not want coking coal supplies to come under as tight a control as iron ore, where supplies are largely controlled by three miners, including Rio.</p>
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(Reporting by Sonali Paul and Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Ed Davies)</p>
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