COPPER-GOLD: Oyu Tolgoi produces first concentrate

MONGOLIA – The Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project, located in the South Gobi region 80 km from the Chinese border, has produced its first copper concentrate. The announcement was made by 66% owner Turquoise Hill Resources of Vancouver. The balance of the project is owned by the Mongolian government.

Since the original discovery in 2001, over US$5.6 billion has been invested in the project to build an 85,000-t/d open pit and concentrator. When the underground mine reaches full production in 2018, the concentrator will nearly double to 160,000-t/d. Oyu Tolgoi is expected to generate 1.2 billion lb of copper, 650,000 oz of gold and 3 million oz of silver a year during its first decade of operation. The project will operate for at least 50 years.

Readers wishing to dig into the 500-plus-page Oyu Tolgoi technical report issued in 2012 may do so by clicking here.