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Orion Minerals, the promising emerging copper zinc miner in South Africa’s prolific Northern Cape will set out to update Australia on the Prieska copper-zinc revival next week.

Errol Smart, the CEO of the Sydney- and Johannesburg-listed Orion, will carry out a roadshow Down Under on May 9.

Orion’s two emerging Northern Cape production hubs – the Prieska copper-zinc mine and the Okiep copper project – are opening the way for South Africa to be a producer of future-facing ‘green’ metals to support the global energy transformation and to help to combat climate change.

Okiep has potential for near-term production restart and Orion also has the Jacomynspan project – a nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group elements (PGEs), and gold pursuit with potential to produce advanced battery precursor products.

The company has received encouraging results, too, from a successful maiden drilling programme on the Koperberg-Carolusberg line of intrusives, confirming historically reported results and proving shallow mineralisation.

Six years after acquiring the Prieska copper-zinc mine in the Northern Cape, Orion is now on the cusp of becoming a base metal producer following a strategic funding package underpinned by its new strategic partner, South African mining group Clover Alloys. Interestingly. Clover Alloys headed by South African mining stalwarts Philip Kotze and Adam Fleming, both formerly of gold exploration and mining company Wits Gold, and interestingly, Mining Weekly can report that Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond spy novels, was Adam Fleming’s father’s elder brother.

The Clover advance followed key funding packages from Triple Flag Precious Metals and South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation.

In addition to the Prieska, the Okiep copper project is also being developed to help the world to decarbonise by supplying it with copper.

On a fully permitted site, Orion will be getting Prieska into production very quickly, without extraneous influences of bank-enforced engineering, procurement and construction management, or EPCM, contracts.

Smart describes Clover Alloys’ expertise as being invaluable in positioning Orion to become a near-term producer.

Being brought back to the fore are the Northern Cape’s copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver and tungsten opportunities, with notable diggings of lithium, rare-earth elements and uranium, along with virgin deposits of nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs) being identified.

At Jacomynspan, the battery refining agreement has been signed with Stratega Metals, embracing the development of a specialist refining facility, using Stratega’s licensed refining know-how. Presenting a major beneficiation value uplift is metal vapour refining technology that is used to produce battery precursor metal and nano powders used in the electronics industry.

Both hydrogen and battery technologies are expected to operate in the power sector, but in different areas, says independent risk management and assurance firm DNV.

Hydrogen is expected to play a role as a form of dispatchable generation, which allows for the seasonal storage or production of energy – producing hydrogen in seasons with excess electricity generation from renewables, to then converting it back to electricity during periods with reduced wind and solar availability.

Batteries are expected to dominate in providing short term energy storage solutions, improving grid stability and balancing supply and demand within the daily cycles of renewable electricity generation and changing demand.

In this sense the two technologies complement each other in helping to ensure a secure supply of electricity and to enable the decarbonisation of the electricity grid, the DNV report states.

The driving force in this relationship is the cost of storage relative to the cost of power production. Hydrogen has the advantage of relatively cheap storage in terms of the equipment used for each kilowatt hour stored, and storage can be scaled up significantly to increase the discharge time for a given discharge rate.

In a utility scale battery storage application, the battery modules themselves make up nearly 50% of the cost, and therefore increasing the capacity has a large capital expenditure impact.

Hydrogen is expected to play a large role in decarbonising international shipping, however not in a pure form but as ammonia and e-methanol. Both ammonia and e-methanol are expected to be cheaper to produce, store and transport than other synthetic fuels and have a higher density by volume than hydrogen. Significant development is needed before either fuel can be in widespread use, leaving some uncertainty in the final energy mix of the sector.

The use of hydrogen in a fuel cell or in an internal combustion engine is feasible and commercial vehicles are both available and in development today. Fuel cell electric vehicles (which are generally platinum based) uptake is expected to be concentrated in high payload heavy goods vehicles, some coaches and off-road vehicles, along with some fleet vehicles where high utilisation and rapid refuelling is required.

Hydrogen vehicles may take a significant market share of the heavy-duty sectors, such as long-distance high payload heavy good vehicles and coach services where battery technology is unable to feasibly meet the performance requirements. In addition to higher energy capacity, hydrogen vehicles can be refuelled within minutes, making them preferable for applications requiring high utilisation and fast turnaround times, for instance ambulance services.

In many applications, greater long-term potential is seen in fuel cell vehicles rather than hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles, but with fuel cell costs currently high. As a result, sectors including construction and agricultural are, in the near-term, investing in hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles. Hybrid solutions utilising fuel cell as range extenders for battery electric vehicles may be the preferred solution in specific applications, however typically the increased cost and minimal refuelling infrastructure is expected to limit the market share for hybrid vehicles, the report states.

Key countries for the supply of fuel cell components include the US, Germany, and Japan. Fuel cells can be disassembled, and the materials recycled. Fuel cell recycling is mainly focused on the recovery of the expensive precious metal catalysts. In the UK, there is currently no established processes for recovering these high value materials, however it is an emerging area. Canadian company Ballard Power Systems state they can typically reclaim more than 95% of the precious metals and that most of the remaining components in a fuel cell stack can be recycled using ordinary recycling processes. Similarly, to the recycling of battery cells, incr...

Mining luminary of South Africa’s shaft-sinking boom period at the beginning of the millennium Nigel Townshend is back in action as the newly appointed nonexecutive chairperson of United Mining Services (UMS) Limited.

Since the start of this month, Townhend has been at the top table of UMS, an underground mining and metallurgical processing solutions company.

The South African mining community will recall that in 1982 Townshend founded the prominent civil and structural design firm TWP, which was a prolific provider of engineering, procurement and construction management services to a then flourishing South African mining industry.

In 2007, Townshend listed TWP on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange amid a flurry of trumpets iand later sold it off to pursue numerous interests in mining and nonmining, advising on business strategy.

With current global assignments in countries including Botswana, Brazil and the United States, UMS has operational headquarters in Woodmead, Johannesburg.

In a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly, Townhend outlined how he is now looking to contribute to the UMS, a group being ably led by CEO Digby Glover.

Mining Weekly: What do you hope to contribute to the UMS Group?

Townshend: I’m actually the chairman of the UK holding company which is UMS Limited United Kingdom and that owns all the subsidiaries which operate around the world, with the head office in South Africa. I'm really here to give some guidance. Hopefully I've managed to learn something in the sort of 40 years that I've been in the mining industry, some direction and making sure that all the corporate governance rules, environmental social governance, are dealt with in the correct manner and basically be a sounding board for the senior management and see if I can add anything from my experience or assist in any way possible with the operations. But it is a nonexecutive position. so it won't be involving myself full time. It has taken up quite a lot of my time initially, I was only at the beginning of April, and I spent quite a lot of time getting to understand the operation, where they're coming from as the old branding of Shafts Sinkers and where we're going to.

What does UMS have to offer South Africa’s underground mining industry?

If you cast your mind back many years ago, under the guise of TWP. TWP was a professional services company. They designed project managed mines, process plants, facilities, etc. UMS offers that service, but it takes it one step further by being able to offer the contracting ability in an underground and in future on the surface as well. So, again, it's pretty much a TWP, but with the ability to actually execute the mining project or the process plant project.

What can UMS’ metallurgical processing insight provide?

It's a bit early for me to answer that question in too much detail, but we have a good team of process engineers, who has several projects on the go at the moment. It's mainly in the design phase and the operational improvement phase. But we're looking at adding to the skills base to encompass the sort of birth-to-death of a particularly a hydrometallurgical process plant.

Mining Weekly is very interested in hydrometallurgical processes because we have a situation in South Africa where the pyrometallurgical processes take up a lot of scarce Eskom energy. So do you think that that hydrometallurgy will be the dominant path adopted rather than the pyrometallurgical process?

I think there has to be a move in that direction. I'm not really up to speed with the latest in the new technology, but there's obviously some big developments in that area, and should that prove successful, that's going to be a big game-changer for the minerals industry.

Your former TWP was involved in some of South Africa’s celebrated shaft-sinking projects. What are the shaft-sinking prospects like given the need of the world to move fast to procure critical minerals such as lithium, rare earths and copper for widespread electrificat...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Hive Hydrogen’s R105-billion, phase one, investment pledge; Mitochondria's R4.3-billion pledge for a hydrogen fuel cell project to create 1 500 jobs in the Sebokeng area; and copper driving up Anglo’s first-quarter production by 9%.

The R105-billion investment pledge by Hive Hydrogen at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s fifth South Africa Investment Conference was the biggest by far, resulting in Engineering News & Mining Weekly pursuing more information on it, only to find that the initial R105-billion is only Phase 1.

Remarkably, even 50 more R105-billion Hive Hydrogen projects would be far from sufficient to meet current demand projections for the green hydrogen-derived green ammonia product that Hive Hydrogen will sell to already confirmed Far East offtakers, Hive Hydrogen GM Colin Loubser told Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The scale of what is required to turn around fossil fuel reliance in the maritime industry alone is what is driving Hive Hydrogen’s thought processes and already being studied by the Hive group are three more phases in the Eastern Cape, plus the feasibility of similar projects in Spain, Chile and Turkey.

The South African project, which was initiated in 2018, is seen as having the biggest socially positive early impact potential.

Its location at the enabling Port of Coega in the Eastern Cape is seen as putting the project in pole position to get the green ammonia that will be produced into international markets fastest and important for the Eastern Cape is that Hive Hydrogen’s initial socio-economic study indicates that Phase 1 of the project will employ a minimum of 20 000 people, with an estimated 50 000 being employed if all four phases go ahead.

Then Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille registered Hive Hydrogen’s green project as a Special Integrated Project, or SIP, which means it will be prioritised for implementation while following an expedited path to delivery of 950 000 t/y of green ammonia, with set and shorter time frames for regulatory processes.

Hive Energy and Thulani Gcabashe's BuiltAfrica – together as Hive Hydrogen – as well as Linde plc, through its wholly owned South African subsidiary Afrox, last year teamed up to establish the pioneering Eastern Cape plant.

Sod turning for the construction of an effective 4 000 MW of wind and solar assets is scheduled to take place in April 2025 and planning and procurement preparation is underway for full project commissioning in January 2028.

“Overall, the project is making good progress,” Hive Hydrogen chairperson Gcabashe stated in an email to Mining Weekly.

Using green ammonia to supplement the needs for existing ammonia requirements in fertiliser and explosives for the mining industry is being studied.

But the key focus in the near future will be on green ammonia availability to replace heavy fuel oil and diesel in the maritime industry.

“That component is a very big part of our strategy. We're hoping to extend the R105-billion first phase into a further three phases, but if the demand continues to head in the direction where the projections are, we could extend the four phases we’re planning to 50 phases and still not be big enough,” said Loubser.

Mining Weekly: Are the ships that will carry your green ammonia to the Far East market likely themselves to be fuelled by green ammonia?

Loubser: Absolutely. That's a growing trend and two ships have already been launched for that purpose. There are, I think, 14 more on order at the moment and there was an announcement last week of a 65 000 t vessel to transport green ammonia, which will itself be powered by green ammonia, being built. The shipbuilding industry is obviously seeing a massive upswing in their business. By the demand for ammonia-driven shipping. There are moves as well to change existing heavy fuel oil and diesel fuel fleets into ammonia clean fuel.

How is Hive Hydrogen funding this project?

Obviously, it's a huge amount of money that Hive couldn't fund itself, but the development side we are finding ourselves. To date, we’ve fully funded Hive’s side and Hive is quite a substantial business. We’re in 22 countries with three big ...

Sibanye-Stillwater's Integrated Report 2022 published today highlights the company’s clinching of minerals resources and reserves in the critical metals arena while maintaining minerals positions in platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold in Southern Africa.

Listed at the top of its minerals successes in the comprehensive report is the declaration of a maiden lithium (Li) mineral reserve of 193.6 kt of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) following the board approval of the Keliber lithium project in Finland.

The Johannesburg- and New York-listed mining company, headed by chairperson Dr Vincent Maphai and CEO Neal Froneman, also achieved a 133% increase in Li mineral resources to 452.9 kt of LCE.

This was done, the report states, while maintaining a stable mineral reserves position at the PGMs and gold operations in South Africa, where depletion has been offset by additional mineral reserves from the completion of a successful feasibility study at the Mimosa PGM operations in Zimbabwe and increases at DRDGOLD.

Its mineral resources and reserves challenges were cited as the repositioning of PGM operations in the US and the Akanani PGMs exploration project in South Africa. In the US, the update of life-of-mine plans resulted in a 3.6% decrease in mineral reserves and a 6.1% decrease in mineral resources, and at Akanani, a mining right application was rejected on a technicality. Regarding Akanani, Sibanye has launched internal appeal proceedings in accordance with the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act. Although confident in its legal position and that it acted within the guidelines during the application, the rejection of the application could impact up to 10% of total group PGM mineral resources, Sibanye states in the integrated report.

As one of the largest primary producers of platinum, palladium, and rhodium and a top-tier gold producer, Sibanye also produces and refines iridium and ruthenium, nickel, chrome, copper and cobalt, while recently also diversifying into battery metals mining and processing. It is also increasing its presence in the circular economy by growing and diversifying its recycling and tailings reprocessing operations globally.

On the lithium exploration front, Sibanye has total mineral resources of 10.2 Mt grading 0.2% Li (for 86.8 kt LCE) and 8.1% H3BO3. The attributable resources in the Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project, through the shareholding in ioneer, were largely unchanged. An agreement is in place with ioneer to establish a 50:50 joint venture with respect to the Rhyolite Ridge project in Nevada. During 2022, the project advanced to the final stage of permitting, with the US Bureau of Land Management.

Regarding copper exploration projects, Sibanye has total copper mineral resources of 13 257.1-million pounds, a decrease of 0.1%, impacted by a minor change in shareholding in Aldebaran Resources from 19.99% to 17.59%. Aldebaran has completed expenditures to gain a 60% interest in the Altar project.

Regarding gold exploration projects, Sibanye’s total gold resources of 6.9-million ounces remained unchanged at the Southern Free State project and its 66.6-million-ounce uranium exploration remains unchanged, with uranium resources occurring within gold operational footprints.

As a dual-listed company, on the JSE and the NYSE, Sibanye’s mineral resources and mineral reserves are reported in accordance with the Samrec Code and subpart 1300 under Regulation S-K of the US Securities Act of 1933, the company states in a release to Mining Weekly.

STILLWATER WEST SHAFT RECOMMISSIONED

The vertical shaft at Sibanye’s Stillwater West mine in the US has been recommissioned, following remediation of shaft infrastructure, which was damaged during an incident in March.

Production from the deeper levels, below the 50 level, at the Stillwater West mine has resumed, with normalisation expected by the end of April. Suspension of production below 50 level during remediation and production build-up is exp...

The small end of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) received a big boost on Friday with the listing of Copper 360, which has an ambition to be Africa’s next big copper play.

The alluring deep beat of the African drum accompanied investor bids that flashed across the big screen at the JSE as offers came in from investors wanting to get their hands on some of the 629.7-million Copper 360 shares listed on JSE’s Alternative Exchange (AltX) under the symbol of CPR. This is the second company to list on the JSE this year, pushing up the number of listed companies on the bourse to 303. Collectively, these companies have an overall market capitalisation of R22.76-trillion, which emphasises the financial strength of the JSE. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Copper 360 coming to the market gives South Africans exposure to the only pure copper exposure available to them with further growth. It opens up a capital market for Copper 360 and allows the company to network to further develop strategic partnerships. It also raises its profile and South Africa’s status as an investment destination.

As those attending the listing watched, JSE trading operations manager Martin Koch introduced the virtual trading floor represented on the equity market via the screen and the three letters CPR appeared in the far lefthand corner. All data flowing across the world is referenced by those three letters.

The screen showed considerable demand from prospective individual buyers, with the best price at 406 c, with no sellers in sight.

Currently ranked in the Top 20 largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalisation, the 135-year-old JSE makes real connections happen. Listing on the JSE gives companies like Copper 360 access to liquid capital markets while providing investors exposure to Africa’s growth potential through a long-standing entry point.

Copper 360, a Northern Cape copper mining and copper beneficiation company, was formed in November 2022 from a reverse takeover of CEO Jan Nelson’s Big Tree Copper and chairperson Shirley Hayes’ SHiP Copper, the company is targeting the production of premium copper with good cash margins.

Ahead of listing, the company, which is producing 1 200 t of copper cathode a year and aiming to up copper production to 7 700 t/y, raised R152.5-million at an oversubscription rate of 1.3 times. Coronation has a 7%-plus stake and the Ekapa Group 15%.

While Copper 360 processes the copper, mills it and puts it through the plant, the Ekapa team is particularly adept at pre-screening and upgrading, and all eyes are on seeing whether the promising technology that Ekapa has developed can make the positive difference that early indications point to.

Ekapa Mining has developed what is described as “groundbreaking” preconcentrating capacity for its diamond recovery plant in Kimberley as an alternative to dense media separation.

“It’s highly cost effective and I believe there’s a major role for it to play in copper pre-concentration, to up the grades prior to particularly oxide plant recovery.

“The process is being developed in Kimberley on the back of our existing production units, which have been highly successful, and I have a strong feeling at this stage that it’s going to be a dynamic gamechanger to the copper industry in preconcentrating to have a higher grade going through production plants,” Ekapa CEO Jahn Hohne explained to Mining Weekly.

ENORMOUS PRIVILEGE

Hayes described the listing of the company after 14 years of effort as an enormous privilege. “I’d say the first mile is the hardest. They don’t call it the impossible mile for nothing, and to stand here today with our team that has pulled us through and sometimes pushed us through, is time for celebration. But the next 14 years now lie ahead.”

Nelson said in response to Mining Weekly: “It took us years to get here. A lot of pain, and a lot of hard slogging from the team in difficult markets and a difficult environment, but we’ve made it to here, s...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses South Africa's need to raise capital at the small end of the stock exchange; the first wave of Anglo American’s renewable energy projects; and the fifth South African Investment conference, which saw the biggest investment pledge in green hydrogen.

Platinum group metals- (PGM-) based proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is a competitive technology in upscale mode, which is making its mark in electrolysis for hydrogen production as well as in the use of hydrogen for vehicle mobility.

PEM electrolysers have distinct advantages when dealing with renewable energy sources because they can react more dynamically and more quickly to certain on-off scenarios.

Significant thrifting has been achieved in the amount of iridium required by PEM electrolysers, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and thrifted catalysts not only contain considerably less iridium but also provide better performance at lower cost.

Amid these advances, which are being further boosted by the prospect of lower-priced ruthenium partially substituting scarce iridium – as well as collaborated iridium recycling strategies – PEM will make significant headway into electrolysis for hydrogen production, as well as into fuel cell technology for vehicle mobility.

These insights have been provided by Heraeus Precious Metals executive VP: new business Philipp Walter, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom online interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Scarce iridium, as one of the six elements of PGMs, plays a key role as a catalyst on the anode side of PEM electrolysers and the intense research into partially substituting it with fellow PGM ruthenium is being undertaken by Heraeus in partnership with PGM mining and recycling company Sibanye-Stillwater.

If left to conventional catalysts, the global availability of the mainly South African-supplied iridium would have been insufficient to meet the targets of the European Union Commission, which has a strategy to drive demand.

But Walter was upbeat: “There's really a great reduction of iridium in PEM electrolysers ongoing right now.”

He reports average thrifting of iridium to between 0.3 g/kW and 0.4 g/kW compared with 1 g/kW a couple of years ago and is positive on the outlook for greater thrifting of 0.08 g/kW to 0.1 g/kW with the next generation catalysts from Heraeus, a broadly diversified and globally leading family-owned technology company, headquartered in Hanau, Germany. Heraeus is well known in South Africa for its PGMs refinery in Gqeberha as well as its long-standing close association with Northam Platinum.

Promising iridium/ruthenium mixed oxides under development as part of the Heraeus/Sibanye project are pointing to a level below 0.08 g/kW.

Nevertheless, iridium recycling remains pivotal, with salvaging strategies being fine-tuned in collaboration with industry stakeholders.

Mining Weekly: Just how much iridium is available for green hydrogen, generated by means of PEM electrolysis?

Walter: We are talking about generally eight to nine metric tonnes of iridium being mined every year. However, this iridium is not only used for PEM electrolysis. Actually, the majority is currently used for other applications such as spark plugs, crucibles, catalysts for chemical processes and acetic acid production. Based on our own calculations, and of course, these are more assumptions and conclusions from a certain understanding of the market, we think that a maximum of around 1.5 metric tonnes per annum (1.5 mt/a) of iridium to 2 mt/a of iridium from primary supply is available per year for PEM electrolysers for the high production of hydrogen.

What needs to happen to ensure the growth of PEM electrolysis?

Iridium is pivotal for every PEM electrolyser. To replace iridium is not easy. In academia, there are a lot of approaches on the way, but for the time being, iridium is set for PEM electrolysis. But the use of iridium in PEM electrolysers is not optimised yet and there’s a lot going on. Currently, we are talking about around 0.4 g/kW of iridium to allow the iridium demand to be sufficient to accompany the hyperscaling of hydrogen. For the hyperscaling of PEM electrolysis, thrifting needs to happen, not only on the catalyst side, but also on the...

Diversified miner Rio Tinto has set a new first-quarter record in iron-ore shipments during the three months to March.

The miner on Thursday reported that iron-ore shipments from the Pilbara reached 82.5-million tonnes, a 16% increase on the previous corresponding period, while production reached 79.3-million tonnes, an 11% improvement on the previous corresponding period.

Rio told shareholders that the ramp-up of the company’s $3.1-billion Gudai Darri operation continued to progress well. At full production, the mine will have a yearly capacity of 43-million tonnes, underpinning production of the Pilbara Blend, Rio’s flagship iron-ore product.

“We continue to make steady progress with our highest-ever first-quarter shipments achieved in the Pilbara iron-ore business. Through the ongoing deployment of our Safe Production System we expect to see a sustainable lift in operating performance across our global portfolio over time, in line with improvements already achieved,” said CEO Jakob Stausholm.

For the full year, Rio is targeting iron-ore shipments of between 320-million and 335-million tonnes.

Mined copper production, on a consolidated basis, was in line with the previous corresponding period, at 145 000 t, as increased production from the Oyu Tolgoi mine made up for decreased production from the Kennecott operation, in the US.

Mined copper production was 36% lower than the first quarter of 2022 owing to a combination of record snowfall and a failure in early March of motors that drive a conveyor belt that feeds crushed ore to the concentrator. The concentrator is expected to operate below full capacity until the third quarter of 2023 as contingencies are implemented while replacement conveyor motors are sourced.

Kennecott is also managing heightened geotechnical and flooding risk associated with spring melting of the snowpack, the company said.

At Oyu Tolgoi, mined copper production increased by 41% on the first quarter of 2022 owing to concentrator maintenance in the prior period, and higher copper grades. Rio’s equity share in Oyu Tolgoi has increased from 33.52% to 66%, following its acquisition of Turquoise Hill Resources in December of last year.

Rio on Thursday adjusted its full-year copper production target from between 650 000 t and 710 000 t, to between 590 000 t and 640 000 t, reflecting the conveyor outage at Kennecott and the geotechnical challenges in the openpit at the Escondida operation, in Chile, where mining has been resequenced with an eye on continued optimisation of the pit.

Meanwhile, bauxite production of 12.1-million tonnes was 11% lower than the first quarter of 2022 as the Weipa operations were affected by higher-than-average rainfall during the yearly wet season. This resulted in reduced pit access, speed limits for mobile equipment and stockpile bottlenecks owing to port closures, Rio told shareholders.

Production was further affected by equipment downtime at both Weipa and Gove, however, the company has maintained its bauxite production guidance at 54-million and 57-million tonnes as Rio implemented plans to recover lost production at both sites through the remainder of the year.

Alumina production of 1.9-million tonnes was 2% lower than the first quarter of 2022 following unplanned outages at Queensland Alumina Limited and plant reliability issues at Yarwun in Australia, while aluminium production reached 0.8-million tonnes, up 7% on the previous corresponding period as Rio benefitted from the continued ramp-up of operations at the Kitimat smelter.

“We remain focused on disciplined growth in materials the world needs for the energy transition, delivering first sustainable production from the underground mine at Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia and progressing early works on the Rincon lithium project in Argentina. We advanced the Simandou high-grade iron-ore project in Guinea with our partners, and entered into an agreement for a joint venture to unlock La Granja in Peru, one of the largest undevelope...