RIO Rio Tinto Plc

   By Rhiannon Hoyle 
 

SYDNEY--A decision on whether Rio Tinto PLC will develop its Winu copper-and-gold deposit in Western Australia has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but is likely to happen before the end of 2021, Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said Thursday.

"We will have to consider whether to sanction a project [at Winu] before the end of this year," but "Covid has slowed it down," he told reporters after a shareholder meeting in Australia. "We probably had expected to do it a little bit earlier, but it still makes it a very, very fast development."

Mr. Stausholm said he couldn't provide an exact time frame on when a decision would be made.

Rio Tinto has previously said it could be operating a mine at the deposit, which it discovered in 2019, in 2024.

Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 06, 2021 05:57 ET (09:57 GMT)

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