Rio
Tinto Group, the world’s third largest mining company, said capital
spending on the Oyu Tolgoi copper project is likely to be greater than USD5
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.

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.