Mongolian Super Large Copper Mine Rejected Chinese Bids, After Australia's Rio Tinto Gladly Took Over, Was Stunned by the Following Scene!
Recently, Australia complained that the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine taken over by Rio Tinto was merely a big burden. In fact, the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine located in the South Gobi Province of Mongolia is truly a world-class treasure: it has more than 30 million tons of copper reserves, ranking sixth in the world, and also has more than a thousand tons of gold reserves.
This mining area is only 80 kilometers away from the Chinese border, and China accounts for 82% of global copper import demand. It is both the largest copper consumer in the world and has the closest power grid.
However, in 2009, Mongolia made a puzzling decision: selling 66% of the shares of the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine to Australian Rio Tinto Group for 3.1 billion U.S. dollars, rejecting any bid from Chinese enterprises. Obviously, Ulaanbaatar hoped to introduce Western capital to balance geopolitical pressure and reduce dependence on China and Russia.
When Rio Tinto took over the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, it thought it had found a great deal. However, they were soon hit hard by reality. A series of harsh demands from Mongolia turned this seemingly stable project into an endless pit. First, Outer Mongolia wanted Rio Tinto to build a power plant to prepare for the mining of copper.
Rio Tinto had to invest a large amount of money to build power generation facilities. The estimated cost of a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant was as high as 924 million U.S. dollars. As development progressed, the investment in the Oyu Tolgoi project by Rio Tinto grew like a snowball. In addition to the power plant requirements, Mongolia also raised requirements for transportation roads and environmental protection.
As of 2025, Rio Tinto's investment in the project has far exceeded 10 billion U.S. dollars, including waiving 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in Mongolian debt and providing a 5 billion U.S. dollar interest-free loan.
Mongolia continued to suspend the project on the grounds of environmental protection, forcing Rio Tinto to pay an additional 7 billion U.S. dollars as a deposit before resuming operations. Now, Rio Tinto is ignoring the ban and selling the mined copper to China.
Original text: www.toutiao.com/article/1845383274551372/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.