Oyu Tolgoi Copper Mine Spending to Be More Than $5 Billion, Rio Forecasts

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third largest mining company, said capital spending on the Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia is likely to be greater than $5 billion.

The project has a potential life of more than 50 years, Peter Nicholls, general manager commercial of Rio Tinto’s copper unit, said in slides at the Mongolia investment conference in Hong Kong today.

First output is scheduled for 2013, Nicholls said, with full underground production expected in 2018.

Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. are developing Oyu Tolgoi, which London-based Rio has called the world’s largest copper resource.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hanny Wan in Hong Kong at hwan3@bloomberg.net;