Pub 9 2021 Issue 1

MEMBER FOCUS Rio Tinto Copper O ur very first mine was a copper mine on the banks of the Rio Tinto river in Andalusia, Spain – bought in 1873 by a British-European investor group led by Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Matheson. Today, our copper operations around the world are at various stages in the mining lifecycle, from exploration to rehabilitation. At each of our copper operations, we use leading-edge technologies that drive safe, efficient, and productive methods of extracting, processing, and refining copper, supplying customers in China, Japan, and the U.S. Oyu Tolgoi, in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, is one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world. When the underground mine is complete, it will be the world’s largest copper mine. Our Kennecott mine is a world-class, integrated copper mining opera- tion located just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. Our Kennecott mine produces gold and silver as by-products of our copper mining. In 2019, after 75 years of operation, Kennecott retired its coal- fired power plant in Magna, Utah. Power for the operation will come from renewable energy certificates purchased from Rocky Mountain Power – primarily from wind and solar resources. Closing the plant and acquiring renewable energy certificates will remove more than one million tons of carbon dioxide every year from Kennecott’s Wasatch Front operations, reducing its annual carbon footprint by as much as 65%. The renewable energy certificate program is Green energy certified and meets the environmental and consum- er-protection standards set by the Center for Resource Solutions. In 2020, Kennecott and Oyu Tolgoi became the first producers to be awarded the Copper Mark, the copper industry’s new independent responsible production program. To achieve the Copper Mark – devel- oped according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Kennecott’s and Oyu Tolgoi’s copper was assessed against 32 criteria covering Environment, Community, Business and Human Rights, Labour and Working Conditions and Governance. In the U.S., the Resolution Copper Project reached a significant milestone in 2019 with the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which will allow us to continue progressing one of the world’s most significant copper deposits towards development. And in 2020, we announced the maiden Resource at Winu, a copper and gold project in Western Australia with the potential to become a large-scale operation over time. MINING 18