Ore containing copper and gold undergoes flotation at Oyu Tolgoi’s 100,000-mt/d concentrator.

In a project update released on February 14, 2013, Turquoise Hill reported that con-struction of the first phase of Oyu Tolgoi development was 99% complete as of year-end 2012. Capital invested in first-phase construction totaled $6 billion as of that date. The final capital cost of first-phase construction is expected to come in at $6.2 billion, within 3% of the initial budget, excluding foreign-exchange exposures.

The Turquoise Hill Resources update also noted that the government of Mongolia has recently raised a number of substan-tive issues relating to implementation of the Oyu Tolgoi project Investment Agree-ment, the companion Shareholders’ Agree-ment, and project finance.

“Turquoise Hill continues to engage with the government and other stakehold-ers to ensure the continued implementa-tion of the Investment and Shareholders’ agreements in their current form, and to support the on-going development of Oyu Tolgoi for the benefit of all parties. Subject to the resolution of these issues, first com-mercial production at Oyu Tolgoi is sched-uled to commence by the end of June 2013,” the Turquoise Hill update said.

Phase-one Oyu Tolgoi mine production is from the Southern Oyu open pit. The concentrator has an initial throughput capacity of 100,000 mt/d.

A feasibility study for an expansion of operations at Oyu Tolgoi is on-going and is now expected to be completed in the first half of 2014 as the company continues to pursue value engineering and optimization. Planning for the expansion is based on development of an 85,000-mt/d under-ground block cave mine and an expected increase in concentrator throughput capac-ity to 160,000 mt/d.