'World metals, minerals demand to double by 2022' Rio Tinto announces new resources to aid growth

Print this page Posted on : 05-30-2008 by recycleinme.com

'Demand growth remains strong and, combined with supply side constraints, this means there has never been a time at which our options for expansion have been so valuable.'

Rio Tinto announced on Thursday that it was ''exceptionally'' well-placed to take advantage of an expected doubling of world demand for its metals and minerals by 2022. The Group will give details of expansion plans for existing operations and highlight its strong project pipeline. Its Chief Executive, Mr Tom Albanese, and senior management will provide detail on resource upgrades, as well as new information on the group's project pipeline at a 'value and growth' seminar in London. The Chief Financial Officer, Mr Guy Elliott, will set out the internal valuation methods that Rio Tinto employs for its future growth options. Rio Tinto has also announced significant new resources, across different ore bodies, which will underpin the Group's superior trajectory for long term growth.

These resources include: The Simandou project in Guinea announced new resources of 2.25 billion tonnes (bt) of iron ore; La Granja project in Peru announced 2.8 bt of inferred copper resources at 0.51 per cent copper and 0.1 per cent zinc; Resolution project in Arizona, US, announced 1.3 bt containing 1.51 per cent copper and 0.04 per cent molybdenum; and the Sulawesi Nickel project on Wednesday announced 162 million tonnes (mt) lateritic nickel inferred resource with potential for further mineralisation through further exploration. In addition, Kennecott Utah Copper last week announced an upgrade of resources to 637 mt at 0.48 per cent copper at its Bingham Canyon mine

Production growth

In his presentation, Mr Albanese will say that Rio Tinto's compound annual production growth is expected to be 8.6 per cent through to 2015 and that world class growth options in place beyond this time are very valuable, especially in strong markets: "Demand growth remains strong and, combined with supply side constraints, this means there has never been a time at which our options for expansion have been so valuable. "With world demand for our products set to double by 2022, we have the reserves and resources in place to keep pace with the market. Rio Tinto has a clear roadmap to deliver industry leading growth over the next few years, but this is just the beginning," Mr Albanese said.

exploration programme

Rio Tinto Copper Group chief executive, Mr Bret Clayton, said the results show La Granja to be one of the largest undeveloped copper projects in Latin America, with potential for further mineralisation with another 39,000 metres of drilling planned through to 2009. ''We're confident our aggressive exploration programme will identify further mineralisation as the deposit remains open to the west and at depth. There are also possibilities for underground mining of deeper higher-grade zones,'' Mr Clayton said. Rio Tinto also said it has further strengthened its position within the iron ore industry with a 2.25 bt addition to its global iron ore resource base. Significant exploration and resource definition work undertaken over a number of years on the Simandou Mining

Source : Business Line