Rio Tinto has issued a progress update on its core mining operations, including Pilbara iron ore and the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine.
The FTSE 100 mining giant said it plans to increase iron ore capacity to 345 to 360 million tonnes at its Pilbara operation and ramp copper production at Oyu Tolgoi to 500kt per year.
The increase in production at Oyu Tolgoi will make it the world’s fourth-largest copper mine.
“The performance at our Pilbara iron ore and Oyu Tolgoi copper operations shows our path towards becoming best operator, and we are focussed on driving continuous improvement across our global portfolio,” said Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm.
It further plans to make a substantial investment in the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, allocating approximately $6.2 billion for the development, including the necessary port and railway infrastructure for raw material exports.
Rio Tinto holds the rights for the development of the southern half of the deposit in collaboration with the government of Guinea and a Chinese consortium led by the Aluminium Corp. of China. The group is expected to invest a total of $11.6 billion.
The Simandou Mountains host one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits, challenging the current dominance of the market by exports from Brazil and Australia.
The Winning Consortium Simandou, led by the Winning International Group and the China Hongqiao Group, holds the rights for the development of the northern part, also in collaboration with the government.