{"id":1160418,"date":"2020-01-16T19:09:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T01:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1011511"},"modified":"2020-01-16T19:09:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T01:09:32","slug":"rios-kennecott-copper-problems-to-last-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1160418","title":{"rendered":"Rio\u2019s Kennecott copper problems to last a year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/shutterstock_57700102.jpg\" alt=\"Rio's Kennecott copper problems to last a year\" class=\"wp-image-17200\" \/><figcaption>Rio Tinto Kennecott copper mine in Utah. File image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rio Tinto mined 557,400 tonnes of copper in 2019, a 5% drop over the year before due to lower grades, which the Anglo-Australian giant could only partially offset with higher throughput.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>All the major copper producers are plagued by aging mines and falling grades, but Rio&#8217;s Kennecott operations in Utah <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asx.com.au\/asxpdf\/20200117\/pdf\/44db77c2dvbvyz.pdf\">has become a real headache <\/a>for the company.<\/p>\n<p>Rio blames the sharp fourth quarter output drop of 9% to 138.7kt on the mine and says higher grades will only be accessed by the end 2020 resulting from the first phase of its south wall pushback project.<\/p>\n<p>In December, Rio announced it is spending $1.5 billion to expand\u00a0Kennecott to extend the life of the more-than 100-year-old open-pit mine near Salt Lake City from 2026 through 2032. Kennecott accounts for nearly a fifth of US copper production.<\/p>\n<p>Rio upped its spending on exploration by 28% to $624m last year mainly on the back of work done at its Resolution copper project in Arizona, partly owned by BHP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rio Tinto copper production slumps 9% with lower grades at Utah mine  playing outsize role<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160418"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1160418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160421,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160418\/revisions\/1160421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1160418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1160418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1160418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}