Rio Tinto has made a maiden discovery at its 100%-owned Winu copper-gold deposit in the Paterson Province of Western Australia (WA).
The company also made a new mineralisation discovery two kilometres east of the Winu deposit at Ngapakarra prospect.
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The Winu project is located around 130km north of the Telfer mine and 350km southeast of Port Hedland.
The maiden inferred mineral resource reported at a 0.2% copper equivalent cutoff was 503 million tonnes (Mt) of ore at 0.45% copper equivalent.
Within the 503Mt was 188Mt yielding 0.68% copper equivalent with a cutoff grade of 0.45% copper equivalent.
Rio Tinto Growth & Innovation and Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) group executive Stephen McIntosh said: “We’re taking a more agile and innovative approach at Winu, and are working on the studies for a small-scale, start-up operation focused on Winu’s higher-grade core as we take another step towards commercialising this deposit.
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By GlobalData“The additional exploration results reported today support our view that there is potential to develop the Paterson region into a large-scale operation over time through both our 100% owned tenements and joint ventures.”
Rio Tinto expects to start Winu production in 2023, subject to securing all the required approvals.
Rio Tinto Copper & Diamonds chief executive Arnaud Soirat said: “We are very pleased with the progress at Winu as it adds a further option to our strong copper portfolio in a country that is home to many of Rio Tinto’s world class operations.”
In February last year, Rio Tinto Exploration (RTX) made a copper-gold mineralisation discovery at the Winu project in the Yeneena Basin of the Paterson Province, Western Australia.
