Australia’s Governor-General has visited Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia amid simmering tensions between the mining giant and the Asian country’s government.
Sam Mostyn was at Oyu Tolgoi this weekend as a key part of her trip to Mongolia — the first by an Australian Governor-General in more than 30 years.
The Governor-General was greeted by Rio’s new chief Simon Trott and chair Dominic Barton before venturing into the bowels of the massive underground copper mine.
“Earlier in my visit, the President of Mongolia and I spoke at great length about the strength of partnership between Australia and Mongolia. We agreed that Oyu Tolgoi is one of the greatest examples of that partnership,” Ms Mostyn said.
“The result of long-term and substantial investment by Rio Tinto, and benefiting from the expertise and ingenuity of hundreds of Australian mining and engineering companies, Oyu Tolgoi was also built by Mongolians for Mongolia’s future.
“The visit to Oyu Tolgoi was an extraordinary experience — we travelled 1.3 kilometres underground and saw first-hand the ingenuity and effectiveness of world class deep block cave mining, delivered with focus on safety and a strong, inclusive and enthusiastic workforce.”
Rio will be hoping Ms Mostyn’s diplomacy blitz can reset its strained relationship with key officials in Ulaanbaatar.
The Mongolian government in May reportedly filed a lawsuit against Rio in a UK court. The lawsuit accused the mining giant of corruption and political bribery.
A few weeks later, Rio was forced to overhaul its plans to grow Oyu Tolgoi after the Mongolian government delayed a decision to grant the company access to mining tenements.
Rio and Mongolia are also in a long-running legal battle over $US438 million ($665m) worth of disputed taxes.
Oyu Tolgoi, which produced first copper as an open-pit mine in 2013 and then as an underground mine in 2023, accounts for nearly 30 per cent of Mongolia’s gross domestic product.
Ms Moyston’s visit to Oyu Tolgoi comes days after the miner changed plans for one of its other copper projects thousands of kilometres away.
Rio on Wednesday cut the development envelope for its Winu copper-gold development in the East Pilbara by almost 14,000 hectares to 23,649ha.
This decision followed negotiations with the local Aboriginal corporation and concerns raised by environmentalists about the potential impact to habitat of a rare parrot species.
In May, Rio sold a 30 per cent stake in Winu for $430.4m to Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining.