Gianluca Natoli London-listed Rio Tinto announced on Monday that it will invest an additional $302 million to advance its Resolution copper project in the US state of Arizona.
The investment will fund additional drilling, ore-body studies, infrastructure improvements and permitting activities, the company said, as it looks to progress the project to the final stage of its permitting phase.
Rio Tinto also said that, when fully operational, the project will have the potential to supply nearly 25% of the United States copper demand and will create several thousand direct and indirect jobs in the Pioneer Mining District of Arizona.
Rio Tinto was trading 1.4% lower on Monday morning, weighing down the basic resources sector.
“Resolution is one of the most significant undeveloped copper deposits in the world and this additional funding demonstrates Rio Tinto's commitment to bring the mine into production,” Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said.
“The rise of electric vehicles, battery storage, new transmission technology and other green energy innovations are highly copper intensive. We need to prepare now to meet this future demand. Resolution will be well positioned to provide North American manufacturers the copper that is essential to their products,” he added.
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