Breaking new ground for copper supply

LAST UPDATED: 13 March 2023

About 1.3 kilometres beneath the remote Gobi Desert, you’ll find a hive of activity.

For the past decade, thousands of Mongolians and their international colleagues have been working to access the underground orebody at the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) copper mine, a partnership between Rio Tinto and the Government of Mongolia.

Today we celebrated the start of production from the underground mine, which will make OT one of the most important producers of copper in the world. At full production, OT’s underground and open cut mines will produce enough copper annually for more than 6 million electric vehicles.

Since 2013, OT has been producing copper concentrate using the ore mined from the open pit, while building the underground mine and readying it for production.

At every stage of the project, the team has been finding better ways to provide copper – a material the world needs for the energy transition. It’s a story of continuous improvement – from the way we manage water resources to trialling new technology to improve safety to creating partnerships, like the Tri-Partite Council, to make sure community voices are heard. And we know there is still more we can do.

As we celebrate this milestone, we’ve chosen some of our favourite images from OT so far. Here are the stories behind them.

It may look like a moon landing, but it’s actually a rare photo of machinery known as a “shaft jumbo” getting ready to drill a deep hole through rock during the underground construction.

OT uses leading underground mining technology known as block caving to mine the ore body. Block caving is technically complex, but it is also one of the safest and most cost-effective methods of mining ore from deep below the ground as it uses the force of gravity.

We know we must manage the mine’s impact on water resources carefully. This includes working with herders, locals and the government to protect water in boreholes, existing wells and other community water supplies. One way we verify this is through our community water-monitoring programme – we check the water levels and quality in local herders’ hand-dug wells, and they keep their own water records for comparison.

Recycling and conservation practices make OT one of the most water-efficient mines of its kind in the world. Water for industrial use is drawn from the Gunii Hooloi saline groundwater aquifer, which is unsuitable for drinking. Around 88% of the water used in production is recycled, and on average, OT uses 0.4 cubic metres of water to process a tonne of ore – around a third of the industry average.

A novel local development project, known affectionately as ‘Goat to Coat’, is a unique partnership approach to community advocacy and sustainability. Organisations as varied as luxury goods maker Kering, the non-profit Wildlife Conservation Society, Stanford University, and even NASA are working with us to help local goat herders maximise their profits by moving up the cashmere supply chain, making production far more sustainable for both herders and the global fashion industry.

One of OT’s priorities is to minimise its footprint on the fragile Gobi desert ecosystem. The team manages its environmental impact through avoidance, minimisation and rehabilitation measures, as well as supporting biodiversity.

OT runs a number of biodiversity monitoring and offset projects, such as a saxaul tree planting project working together with a local NGO.

In 2015, OT established a community participation agreement with local communities and has been investing US$5 million a year into sustainable development projects in the local community every year. To date, a total of US$32.9 million has been invested in the South Gobi under this agreement. In 2022, OT committed US$50 million in a five-year funding programme to support the long-term, sustainable development of Khanbogd soum. Under this programme, the Oyu Tolgoi Catalyst Fund for Khanbogd Development (OTCF) was established in September 2022 to support and facilitate the development of Khanbogd Soum centre to evolve into a sustainable town with a safe and family-oriented atmosphere.

Since 2010, 75% of Oyu Tolgoi’s operational spend was with 567 national businesses – 100 of which are local Gobi-based suppliers. The amount spent with national and local suppliers has been increasing year-on-year.

Every year, OT employees participate in the Khanbogd Soum’s camel festival, which celebrates camel rearing culture and admires the beauty of the Galba Gobi’s red camel.

OT employees and their families volunteer to plant native species in the Gobi desert. We have planted 33 species of Gobi native plants in our Native Plan Propagation Centre in Khanbogd soum, Umnugovi aimag, since 2011, including 457,000 tree and shrub saplings.