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Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) said Tuesday it estimates its initial share of capital spending to develop the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea and associated rail and port infrastructure would total ~$6.2B.
Simandou is considered the world’s largest untapped high-grade iron ore deposit; the company owns two of four Simandou mining blocks as part of its Simfer joint venture with China’s Chalco Iron Ore Holdings and the government of Guinea.
Rio (RIO) said it expects first production from the Simfer mine in 2025, taking ~30 months to ramp up to a capacity of 60M metric tons/year, with the company’s annualized share totaling 27M tons.
The Simfer JV mine concession held an estimated total mineral resource at year-end 2022 of 2.8B tons, of which Rio (RIO) reports the conversion of an estimated 1.5B tons to ore reserves that support a mine life of 26 years, with an average grade of 65.3% iron and low impurities.
The report came as Rio (RIO) prepares to start its 2023 Investor Seminar in Sydney, where it will update on progress in its long-term strategy of investing with discipline to strengthen operations (and) deliver growth in a decarbonizing world.