Ojuu Tolgoi
Ojuu Tolgoi ( Mongolian Оюу Толгой Turquoise Hill ) is a large copper and gold deposit in southern Mongolia , approx. 235 km east of Dalandsadgad , the capital of the Ömnö-Gobi-Aimag in the ( Sum ) Chanbogd district in the southern Gobi desert .
history
Archaeological finds such as small digging points and cinder residue show that copper was extracted and smelted in Ojuu Tolgoi as early as the Bronze Age .
In the 1980s, the area was geologically explored by a Russian-Mongolian joint expedition. A molybdenum anomaly was found, which also indicates copper deposits .
In 1997, BHP Billiton began a more detailed exploration of the Ojuu Tolgoi area. After geophysical explorations, a total of six exploratory boreholes with a total of 1,100 meters were drilled in autumn 1997 . Based on the results of this first phase of drilling, a further 13 holes (2000 meters) were drilled in April 1998, four of which were successful. In the summer of that year, in a third drilling campaign, four more boreholes (800 meters) were finally drilled, which did not find anything. Due to the mixed results, the entire project was reviewed. In 2001, large-scale drilling became successful.
Investments
The planned mine in Ojuu Tolgoi started operations in July 2013 as an open pit mine . The copper concentrate was mostly smelted in China. In 2015 it was decided to align the deposit underground from 2016 . For this purpose, pits with a total length of 200 kilometers are required. Due to various conflicts between the Rio Tinto Group and the Mongolian government (it concerns the extent of government control as well as ecological and social issues as well as allegations of corruption) and because of the drop in the copper price, Rio Tinto temporarily stopped the expansion. Over the planned 45-year life of the mine, $ 7.3 billion is to be invested in the project. That would make it the largest development project and the largest foreign investment in Mongolia's history.
Web links
- Oyuu Tolgoi website
- Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc website (PDF file; 803 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ History (Oyu Tolgoi (copper-gold), Mongolia). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 10, 2012 ; accessed on July 31, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rio Tinto website , accessed October 8, 2016
Coordinates: 43 ° 0 ′ 31 ″ N , 106 ° 50 ′ 36 ″ E