Sandvik has secured a further order to supply about US$30 million worth of underground trucks and loaders to the major Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia.
Mats Eriksson, president of the Swedish manufacturer’s mining business area, indicated past performance of Sandvik equipment at Oyu Tolgoi was a factor in the new order, which will see new machine deliveries starting in October this year and continue through to next November.
Oyu Tolgoi, in Mongolia’s South Gobi Desert, is owned by Rio Tinto (66%) and the Mongolian Government.
More than $7 billion of investment in its underground block cave infrastructure has Oyu Tolgoi moving towards annual production of about 500,000 tonnes of copper per year on average from 2028 to 2036 from openpit and underground sources. Underground production, which started in 2022, is expected to make Oyu Tolgoi the world’s fourth biggest copper mine by 2030.
One of the world’s largest known copper-gold deposits, it has an underground ore reserve average copper grade of 1.52% plus 0.31 grams per tonne gold.
