The Rio Tinto takeover battle is getting more interesting every day. According to this report on the Financial Times blog, Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, having joined the board of Goldman Sachs, his financial advisors, is now thinking about jumping in with an offer for Rio. Mittal, of course, is interested in Rio’s iron ore assets. But if he takes control of Rio, he’ll take control of its diamond assets – including its prospective new mine in India.

Don’t jump to any conclusions right away. Mittal strikes me as a pretty hard-nosed guy and he wouldn’t hesitate to offload Rio’s diamond assets if he felt they don’t fit in with his core businesses and overall strategic view. This would open up possibilities for everyone else including BHP Billiton and Anglo American, who might choose to make the acquisition through De Beers.

So will he or won’t he bid for Rio? And if he does, will he or won’t he hang on to its diamond assets?