Rio Tinto to spend $660M on Utah copper mine

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, has finally put a price tag on its proposed expansion of Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon mine, and it is well over half a billion dollars.

London-based Rio Tinto said it intends to invest $660 million to extend the life of its Utah open-pit copper mine by 11 years through to 2029.

But that may be only part of what it ends up spending in Utah to ensure that the mine has nearly two more decades of profitable operations before it.

"The $660 million doesn’t include all of the pieces of the project we’ve been talking about in public," said Justin Jones, spokesman for Kennecott. "It’s just for the activities at the mine itself."

For example, Kennecott anticipates it will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in its power plant and other facilities that aren’t directly related to the mine. And some of those projects already are under way. Salt Lake Tribune