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From the AFR

Rio seeks green tick for new copper mine in WA

Brad ThompsonReporter

Dec 6, 2023 – 6.07pm

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Rio Tintohas pulled the approvals trigger on building a new copper and gold mine inWestern Australia nearly seven years after making a discovery that sparked amassive land grab.

The mininggiant is seeking environmental approvals for the Winu copper and gold project,which sits in the Paterson Range about 120 kilometres from the Telfer gold and copperoperations owned by Newmont after its $26 billion takeover of Newcrest.

Rio has notrevealed production forecasts for Winu in documents released by WA’senvironmental watchdog, but suggests a mine life of up to 41 years.

Winu hasbeen flagged as a mid-size mine by Rio standards as it bets big on demand forcopper outstripping supply as part of the electrification of global economies.

Rio hasbeen in talks with two traditional owner groups about mine plans that so farinvolve a development footprint of almost 40,000 hectares in an area about 320kilometres east of Port Hedland.

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Rio flewleaders from the Nyangumarta community to its vast Oyu Tolgoi operations inMongolia to help them “understand the impacts of an operating copper mine”.

The Winuplans to date include open pit mining below the water table with 490 milliontonnes of waste rock mined over the life of the project. Rio has previouslytalked up the prospect of creating a network of mines within a single system atWinu.

Winuwas dubbed Rio’s copper whopper after a 2017 discovery that saw the miner rush to boost its exploration footprint in the region from 1000 square kilometres to 12,000 square kilometres.

Rio copperboss Bold Baatar said earlier this year that there was no rush to develop Winuand he intended to work with the Nyangumarta and Martu traditional owners basedon their timetable.

Newmontboss Tom Palmer last month hosed down speculation that Telfer and nearbyHavieron would soon be up for sale, describing them as valuable assets andalluding to “other opportunities that may exist around that area”.

Goldindustry sources suggest that if Telfer is heading for the auction block, it ismore likely to happen in the second half of 2024.

EvolutionMining sealed a $720 million deal for an 80 percent stake in the Northparkes copper and gold mine in NSW on Tuesday in a competitive auction.