Rio Tinto progresses studies for potential underground mining at Kennecott copper
July 22 2021 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Rio Tinto has approved a $108 million investment in underground
development to enable early orebody access and undertake orebody
characterisation studies for underground mining at the Kennecott
copper operations in the United States.
The investment builds on $25 million approved in early-2020 to
complete a pre-feasibility study to determine the viability of
underground mining operations at Kennecott. Potential underground
mining would occur concurrently with open pit operations and result
in increased copper output.
Kennecott holds the potential for a significant and attractive
underground development, with declared Mineral Resources of 20 Mt
at 3.65% copper and 1.62 g/t gold1 with further upside potential
based on drilling.
The feasibility study work will focus on gathering critical
geological, geotechnical and hydrogeological data to inform Rio
Tinto’s assessment of underground development options and is
expected to be completed in 2024. Existing infrastructure from
previous underground projects will be extended to access the North
Rim Skarn orebody, allowing for the development of crosscuts and
further drilling of the resource. The project includes
approximately 15,000 feet (4,500 metres) of lateral development,
1,000 feet (300 metres) of vertical development and associated
support infrastructure.
The project will also include the trial of underground battery
electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions at Kennecott and
across Rio Tinto’s global operations. Sandvik Mining and Rock
Solutions will supply a battery electric haul truck and loader to
evaluate performance and suitability for future underground mining
fleets.
Pre-feasibility studies are also being progressed to extend open
pit mining at Kennecott beyond 2032, with a further push back of
the North Wall to allow access to Mineral Resources. This follows a
$1.5 billion investment in the second phase of the South Wall
Pushback project, approved in 2019, to allow open cut mining to
continue between 2026 and 2032.
Rio Tinto Copper Chief Executive Bold Baatar said: “Kennecott
holds a range of options to extend our supply of copper and other
critical materials, to meet the strong demand being driven by
electric vehicles and renewable power technologies.
“The operation is uniquely positioned to supply these emerging
markets, with one of only two operating smelters in the United
States that also processes concentrates from third parties, a long
history delivering high quality products and significant resources
that are yet to be developed.”
1 This underground Mineral Resource estimate (North Rim Skarn)
was included in Rio Tinto’s 2020 Annual Report released to the ASX
on 22 February 2021 which is available at
https://www.riotinto.com/invest/reports/annual-report. The
Competent Person responsible for this Mineral Resource estimate was
Ryan Hayes (AusIMM). Rio Tinto is not aware of any new information
or data that materially affects this Mineral Resource estimate and
confirms that all material assumptions and technical parameters
underpinning this Mineral Resource estimate continue to apply and
have not materially changed. The form and context in which the
Competent Person’s findings are presented have not been materially
modified from the 2020 Annual Report.
Notes to Editors
Kennecott operates an advanced copper and precious metals
smelter, processing concentrate from Kennecott and third
parties.
In addition to copper, Kennecott is one of the largest producers
of gold, silver, and molybdenum in North America. Construction is
underway on a plant to recover tellurium, a critical mineral used
in solar panels, from copper refining at Kennecott. Rio Tinto is
working with experts from the US Department of Energy’s Critical
Materials Institute (CMI) on ways to extract further critical
minerals from the existing refining and smelting processes.
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