Protesters blocked a transport route serving Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, disrupting copper concentrate exports and prompting warnings of economic losses.
News & Market Analysis:
Protest Halts Copper Exports at Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi Mine in Mongolia
Protesters blocked a transport route serving Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, disrupting copper concentrate exports and prompting warnings of economic losses.
Protesters blocked a transport route serving Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, disrupting copper concentrate exports and prompting warnings of economic losses.
Members of a group called the Radical Reform Movement moved to block copper concentrate exports from Rio Tinto's Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia on June 17, halting scheduled truck shipments to the Chinese border, according to reports. It was not immediately clear how long the blockade would remain in place.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Oyu Tolgoi said the disruption risked preventing the company from meeting contractual obligations and warned that each week of interrupted exports could cost the government around 35 billion Mongolian tugrik in tax revenue. The company said it contributes about 9% of Mongolia's tax revenues and injects roughly 23 billion tugrik into the economy each day, urging protesters not to disrupt normal operations.
Oyu Tolgoi, which is owned by Rio Tinto (66%) and the Mongolian government (34%), is expected to become the world's fourth-largest copper mine once fully operational, according to Rio Tinto.
Argentina has approved the Vicuna copper project - a joint venture between Australia's BHP and Canada's Lundin Mining - in what Economy Minister Luis Caputo called the largest mining project in Argentina's history.
There was a split tone on LME base metals this week with copper, zinc, and tin finishing higher week-on-week, while aluminium, lead, and nickel all closed lower.
