Power lines for Turquoise Hill’s Mongolian project complete

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-listed Turquoise Hill Resources on Tuesday said construction of power lines to its flagship Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold project, in Mongolia, was complete and had been successfully tested with full power loads and were ready for use.

The company, which is controlled by global diversified miner Rio Tinto, said it had now entered into negotiations with Chinese authorities for a power purchase agreement. The mine, which is located out 80 km from the Chinese border, was expected to be the only new copper mine coming on line in the medium-term that counted among the top ten largest copper mines.

The miner said power from Inner Mongolia was required for the full commissioning of the project and to start production. First concentrate production was expected to follow within a month and commercial production was expected to start three to five months thereafter.

Turqoise Hill, which owns 66% of the Oyu Tolgoi mine, said it expected to start underground production in 2016 and was currently completing an underground feasibility study.

Meanwhile, plans were also underway to secure additional funding of between $3-billion and $4-billion of project financing to progress Oyu Tolgoi and Rio Tinto led the process. Turquoise Hill, which had already invested about $5-billion in the project, expected closing of final binding documentation in the first quarter of 2013 and funding in the first half of 2013.

The company’s shares traded down by almost a percent at C$8.41 apiece on the TSX on Wednesday.

Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter

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