Rio Tinto sells 55% stake in La Granja Peru copper project to First Quantum

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 10:47 EDT, 29 August 2023

Rio Tinto has sold 55 per cent of its stake in the La Granja copper project in Peru, South America to Canadian minerals firm First Quantum.

The deal is worth $105million (£83.4million) with the group saying it will invest up to ‘a further $546million into the joint venture to sole fund capital and operational costs to take the project through a feasibility study and toward development’.

‘La Granja, located at high altitude in Cajamarca, Northern Peru, has the potential to be a large, long-life operation, with a published Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource totalling 4.32billion tonnes at 0.51 per cent copper’, Rio adds.

Rio Tinto has sold 55% of its stake in the La Granja copper project in Peru to First Quantum

Tristan Pascall, First Quantum chief executive, said: ‘La Granja has the potential to be a large, long-life operation and supply the copper that will be needed as the world transitions to the greener economy and where responsible mining will be the only acceptable way to produce metals.

‘As operator, we will leverage our core strengths in mine design, project development and community engagement and look forward to developing our partnership with Rio Tinto. 

‘We appreciate the support from the Government of Peru for the completion of this transaction.’ 

Rio Tinto shares are up by 1.3 per cent in early afternoon trading on Tuesday.

Rio Tinto Copper, chief executive, Bold Baatar said: ‘Developing La Granja would provide a significant new supply of copper and further strengthen Rio Tinto’s portfolio of materials needed for the energy transition.

‘Our partnership with First Quantum will bring our combined development capabilities and deep knowledge of La Granja to progress the project.’

Earlier this month, Rio Tinto’s chief executive broke into tears as he apologised to two whistleblowers who spent years raising concerns about misconduct at the company, according to a report seen by the Mail.

Jakob Stausholm, who has led the company since 2021, reportedly said that no one ‘ever deserves’ to be victimised and ‘financially ruined’ the way Dr Maurice Duffy, a long-time consultant with the company, and project manager Richard Bowley were by the FTSE 100 miner.

The leaked document makes a series of damning allegations about irregular payments, corruption and bullying at Rio over a number of years.

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