Oyu Tolgoi

The Oyu Tolgoi project is located in the Aimaq of Omnogovi in the south region of Mongolia close to the border with China. It consists of an 8,496 ha mining license and a 39,864 ha earn-in property.

As of February 2007, mineral reserves were calculated at 930 Mt grading 0.50% copper and 0.36 g/t gold. The measured and indicated resources stood at 1,387 Mt at 1.33% copper, 0.47g/t gold, while the inferred category was estimated at 1,397 Mt grading 0.98% copper, 0.24 g/t gold.

The plan is to develop the deposit as a combination of large surface and underground mines with throughputs ranging from 25 Mt/a to 52.5 Mt/a for a life of over 35 years. The open pit mine is to be developed as a conventional truck and shovel operation utilizing 220 t dump trucks and 42 m3 electric shovels. The preproduction stripping is 43 Mt and carried out over 12 months prior to first production. The ultimate strip ratio is 2.37:1; waste is disposed in dumps adjacent to the pits according to the approved environmental waste strategy. The ultimate depth of Southwest is 735 m and Central is 480 m with an overall N-S length of 2974 m and E-W breadth of 2213 m. The pits are planned to have 15 m high benches.

Underground mining using block caving continues to be studied as the long term project development option. Alternative mining methods using sublevel caving for the initial underground production was considered at scoping study level

Processing is to be carried out using conventional mill and flotation plant.