Rio Tinto, which is developing one
of the world’s largest mines in Mongolia, Thursda said the long-term outlook
for copper remains positive even though volatility in commodity prices is
likely to persist in the near term.

Demand for copper has “plenty of
growth potential”, Andrew Harding, chief executive of the Anglo-Australian
company’s copper division, said in a slide presentation released to coincide
with a resources conference in Hong Kong.

Mr. Harding said Oyu Tolgoi copper
and gold project near Mongolia’s border with China is now 85% complete and on
track for first commercial production by 2013.

The first phase of the preject’s
development will see the construction of an open-pit mining operation, and will
in time be followed by underground development, expansion of the mill and the
building of power station.

Rio is the operator of Oyu Tolgoi
and majority owner of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd, which owns 66% of the project to the
Mongolian government’s 34%. When fully operational, Oyu Tolgoi is forecast to
produce average 1.2 billion pounds of copper a year in the first 10 years,
650,000 troy ounces of gold and more than 3 million ounces of silver.

Source: MarketWatch