Rio Tinto increases resource estimate at Utah asset

20th Sep 2011 07:42

Mining colossus Rio Tinto has increased its assessment of the mineral resources at its wholly-owned Kennecott Utah Copper Bingham Canyon Mine in the USA.After the company completed a new programme of surface drilling, the copper mineral resource estimate has been increased by 20m tonnes to 106m tonnes. The mineral resource addition increases contained metal in mineral resources by 0.73m tonnes of copper, 1.0m ounces of gold and 13m ounces of silver over the 2010 year-end mineral resource estimate."While establishing this high grade underground resource at Kennecott Utah Copper is substantial in itself, it points the way to the significant underground potential of the asset," claimed Andrew Harding, chief executive of Rio Tinto Copper. --jh