Rio Tinto accelerates at Winu deposit in Pilbara

Rio Tinto is launching formal studies into development of the Pilbara copper-gold discovery.

The company could move to begin mining at a smaller scale than previously. Picture: Bloomberg

Rio Tinto has accelerated work on its Winu copper and gold discovery in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, launching formal studies into development of the deposit.

Discovered in 2018, Rio has identified Winu as one of its most promising growth options, and has sunk more than $100m on exploration, a camp and airstrip to service the discovery.

Both Rio chief executive Jean Sebastien Jacques and growth and innovation boss Steve McIntosh have previously flagged a new approach for Rio at Winu, suggesting the company could move to begin mining at a smaller scale than Rio’s previous “tier one” deposit strategy.

At Rio’s investor day in October, Mr McIntosh told analysts Winu represented “a different approach to development and assessing a smaller starter case as an option, to improve our agility in executing growth”.

Rio’s fourth-quarter production report suggests the company is making good on that promise, upgrading Winu from an advanced exploration project into the study stage and noting it had increased spending at the copper and gold deposit on an “order of magnitude” study.

Rio last updated the market on Winu in August 2019, saying it had eight diamond rigs and three reverse circulation drilling rigs operating at the project.

Friday’s status update suggests that Rio is now turning the more than 100,000 metres it has drilled into a formal mineral resource in the order of magnitude work, as part of its early stage economic studies on the development of Winu.