Rio Tinto starts exploration for copper in Karaganda region

KARAGANDA. KAZINFORM Australian-British Rio Tinto jointly with Kazgeologia started new exploration work in Kazakhstan's Karaganda region, Kazinform correspondent reports.

According to the regional administration, the exploration is taking place in two areas of the region Korgantas and Balkhash-Saryshagan. The company expects to find three world-class copper deposits with at least 1 bln. tons of metal. The volume of investments at the current stage amounts to 3,4 bln tenge.

The Korgantas project was started in 2015 and is estimated to last 5-6 years. The company has already completed geophysical logging at Korgantas and began drilling.

The total area of Balkhash-Saryshagan is around 13,000 sq km and Korgantas is around 4,000 sq km.

Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest multinational metals and mining corporations that focuses on finding, mining and processing the Earth's mineral resources.