Rio Tinto PLc (
NYSE: RIO,
Stock Forum) has increased its full-year copper production guidance by 25,000 tonnes after making swifter-than-expected progress with the recovery programme at its Bingham Canyon mine in Utah.
In a second quarter, 2013, operations review, the company said it expects to increase both mined and refined copper output by 25,000 tonnes to 565,000 tonnes and 230,000 tonnes respectively this year.
The revised target for copper follows recovery efforts at Bingham Canyon, which suffered a major wall side in April, 3013, and has been operating at reduced capacity for the past three months.
Rio Tinto shares rose 4% to $43.94 on Tuesday, leaving the mining giant with a market cap of $62 billion, based on over 1.4 billion shares outstanding. The 52-week range is $60.45 and $39.14.
In other news, Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh said the company had reached a new milestone in Mongolia where the Tolgoi copper-gold mine delivered its first shipment of copper concentrate to China.
This represents the culmination of a three-year, $6.2 billion project to build the first phase of one of the world’s top five copper mines, the company said.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto said it is well on track to meet its $750 million targeted reduction in exploration and evaluation spend in 2013, with spending in the first half, down by $483 million over the same period of 2012.