April 02, 2024 • 1 min read

Delivering the materials handling systems at Oyu Tolgoi for Rio Tinto

How we helped Rio Tinto unlock high grade copper from the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia

Our involvement with the Oyu Tolgoi Underground Project started in April 2015, when we provided mine restart support services. We were then appointed to provide EPCM services for the materials handling systems and associated surface and underground infrastructure.

Statistic Cards

of the project’s workforce were women
of the construction workforce were Mongolian citizens
largest copper mine in the world once fully operational

In 2023, the project celebrated the start of underground production

This achievement is testament to the collaboration of the project team who had to overcome various challenges, such as working in a harsh environment with sub-zero temperatures, a complex underground scope and a multilingual, multinational workforce.

Supporting social license drivers was another key accomplishment

The project focused on diversity targets, with women accounting for 28 percent of our workforce. In addition, the drive to maximize local resourcing resulted in over 90 percent of the construction workforce being Mongolian citizens.

Once fully operational, the underground mine will be the fourth-largest copper mine in the world, producing more than 500,000 tonnes per annum of copper.

Two people in Worley PPE looking up at a piece of machinery at the mine.

“This project exemplifies how effective project delivery, safety leadership, innovative solutions, and a commitment to social responsibility helps to not only overcome complex challenges to deliver projects successfully but adds value to our customer and local communities, too,” says Brad Fuge, Global Relationship Manager for Rio Tinto.

This project is transformational for Mongolia and the world, supplying copper to accelerate the shift to a lower carbon future.