This is an excerpt from the interview with BNN's Andrew Bell and Jakob Stausholm, CEO of Rio Tinto this morning:
Copper expansion
In recent years, Rio Tinto has focused on building out its copper production capacity, as the metal becomes increasingly valuable amid the clean energy transition.
Stausholm said the company is ramping up production at its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia following years of delays, cost overruns and disputes with the local government.
“We have had an asset that we have developed for many years that still hasn't given us revenue, (but) the technical ramp-up is going very well,” he said, adding that it will be the fourth-largest copper mine in the world at peak production.
“It will generate a lot of revenue, so copper is a very important division for us. It will be very profitable and it's certainly growing.”