Rio Tinto copper production down 15%

LONDON — Rio Tinto PLC, the world's second-largest miner, said Wednesday that third-quarter refined copper production fell 15 percent after the company shut down a smelter at a mine in Utah.

Total refined copper output fell to 75,600 metric tons (83,300 tons), from 89,200 metric tons (98,300 tons) in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Chantae Lessard, community relations adviser for Kennecott Utah Copper, said in a statement e-mailed to the Deseret Morning News Wednesday that Kennecott took down its smelter in September for a planned shutdown.

"The shutdown is currently scheduled to be complete at the end of the month," Lessard said. "During the project Kennecott is rebuilding their smelting furnaces as well as completing a number of other repairs and improvement projects."

She said the shutdown will complete the second phase of a two-part project. The first phase was completed last year.

"As this has been a planned activity, we have worked with our customers to minimize impacts to their operations," Lessard said. "Kennecott will spend over $110 million and close to 600,000 man-hours on the project total."

Mined copper output fell 6 percent to 182,800 metric tons (201,500 tons) during the third quarter after actions by workers at Rio Tinto's Escondida mine in Chile, the company said in a statement.

Copper is one of the key sources of income for Rio Tinto and other miners as the commodity's price rises on demand from China and other expanding Asian economies.

Third-quarter aluminum production slipped 1 percent to 215,000 metric tons (237,000 tons), while iron ore output gained 11 percent to 35,740 metric tons (39,400 tons), the company said.

Separately, Rio Tinto said it will invest up to $1.7 billion in Vancouver, British Columbia-based Ivanhoe Mines to help develop Mongolian copper-gold resources. The deal will eventually result in Rio Tinto acquiring a 33.4 percent stake in Ivanhoe.

The two companies will jointly engineer, construct and operate Ivanhoe's Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining complex in Mongolia's South Gobi region.

The deal requires Rio Tinto to make an immediate payment of about $345 million, which could increase to about $1.7 billion.

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Contributing: Greg Kratz