{"id":1180460,"date":"2020-04-24T12:07:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T17:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1021721"},"modified":"2020-04-24T12:07:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T17:07:06","slug":"rio-tinto-boosts-budget-for-citadel-copper-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1180460","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto boosts budget for Citadel copper project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rio Tinto (ASX, NYSE, LON: RIO) will <a href=\"https:\/\/antipaminerals.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/2020-04-24.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">spend a further A$9.2 million<\/a> ($5.9m) on exploration at the Citadel copper-gold project, a joint venture with junior Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY), in Western Australia\u2019s Paterson Province.<\/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>The earmarked budget for this year<br \/>\nis well above the previous commitment of A$2 million ($1.3m) put forth in<br \/>\nJanuary, when Rio earned 51% of the project, Antipa said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>The exploration activities, expected to begin this quarter, will include combined reverse circulation and diamond drilling at the Calibre deposit, located 45 kms from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/rio-tinto-to-begin-copper-production-at-winu-in-2023\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Rio Tinto&#8217;s Winu copper-gold project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The junior miner, which is also<br \/>\ncarrying out exploration activities on the North Telfer Project, located 40 km<br \/>\nnorth of Newcrest\u2019s world-class Telfer copper-gold-silver mine, said the program<br \/>\nwould now encompass up to 13,000 m of combined diamond and reverse circulation<br \/>\nresource drilling.<\/p>\n<p>Due to current restrictions<br \/>\nassociated to the coronavirus pandemic, the completion of a previously<br \/>\nplanned reverse circulation program for the greenfield&nbsp;targets has been<br \/>\npostponed, likely until the end of 2020 or early 2021.&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Copper rush<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Rio Tinto has been investing heavily<br \/>\nin copper in the past two years as it believes the market&nbsp;will soon go<br \/>\ninto deficit amid expectations that bigger power grids around the world and an<br \/>\nelectric-vehicle boom will boost demand, while&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/web\/million-tons-copper-on-the-way-may-not-be-enough\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">supplies will remain constrained<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, analysts have<br \/>\nquestioned the mining giant\u2019s ability to scale up its copper business quickly<br \/>\nwithout making an expensive acquisition, especially after facing challenges at<br \/>\nkey assets. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rio\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/rio-tinto-delays-start-oyu-tolgoi-expansion-due-technical-issues\/\" >delayed first production<\/a>\u00a0from the $5.3 billion underground expansion of its Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold-silver mine in Mongolia. Originally scheduled for early 2020, it\u2019s now expected to happen in the third quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, the mining<br \/>\ngiant flagged copper and gold output drops at the already troubled operation. <\/p>\n<p>Rio Tinto said that it would have<br \/>\nto bring experts on site to rectify industrial ropes in the largest and most<br \/>\nimportant access shaft to the underground mine, Shaft 2.<\/p>\n<p>Those ropes service a giant<br \/>\nelevator that allows workers, equipment and ore to move between the bottom of<br \/>\nthe mine, 1.3 km underground, and the surface.<\/p>\n<p>Rio\u2019s subsidiary and Oyu Tolgoi operator, Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX, NYSE:TRQ), said the covid-19 pandemic was making it hard to get experts to the remote Mongolian mine to conduct \u201crectification work\u201d on the ropes. <\/p>\n<p>Demonstrating an increased interest in new discoveries, Rio Tinto invested in 2019 a further\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/rio-tinto-injects-another-302m-resolution-copper-project-arizona\/\" >$302 million\u00a0to advance its Resolution copper project<\/a>\u00a0in Arizona. It has also been advancing other copper projects, Berenguela,\u00a0in south-eastern Peru, while applying for\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/rio-tinto-search-next-escondida-mine-chile\/\" >exploration permits in northern Chile<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It will spend A$9.2 million ($5.9m) on exploration at the Citadel copper-gold project, a joint venture with junior Antipa Minerals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"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":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180460"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1180460"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180468,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180460\/revisions\/1180468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1180460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1180460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1180460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}