Rio Tinto on the lookout for BC porphyry deposit www.mining.com

British Columbia is known for its coal and copper-gold deposits, with a storied history of mining all three commodities. Now the second largest mining company in the world is hoping to add a BC copper porphyry deposit to its portfolio of development properties.

Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON:RIO) Chris Welton said the London and New York-listed mega-miner is scoping out British Columbia for a copper play.

“We would like to be exploring in BC but we just need to find the right project. My exploration manager reminds me that to balance our portfolio in Canada, he wants a BC porphyry,” said Welton, Rio’s exploration director, the Americas region, responsible for “delivery of growth options through early stage greenfields exploration, brownfields exploration, advanced project execution and support for project acquisition throughout North and South America,” states his bio.

Welton was speaking at the opening ceremony of AMEBC’s 2019 Roundup, running Monday to Thursday at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver.

Porphyry deposits are sought after because they are usually low grade and large-scale, allowing for bulk mining and economies of scale. Copper porphyries typically contain 100 million to 5 billion tonnes of ore with grades between 0.2% and 1% copper. Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah produces an annual 300,000 tons of copper.

They are formed where one tectonic plate slips under another, pushing up magma. Metals precipitate out as the magma cools. Gold, copper, molybdenum, silver and lead are among the metals found in porphyries.

Some of BC’s largest copper and gold deposits are porphyries, including the Highland Valley Copper Mine, KSM, Prosperity and New Afton.

As part of his presentation, Welton gave some interesting advice to exploration companies hoping to attract the interest of a major mining company like Rio Tinto.

The company’s exploration arm, known as RTX, dedicates about half of its global exploration budget to copper, with the rest focused on eight commodities in 16 countries.

The 24-year Rio veteran said that contrary to popular belief, despite being a large company, Rio Tinto has a limited exploration budget.

“If we keep the budget tight, keep the teams lean, and focus those now-scarce resources, and valued resources, on only the very best opportunities, this will make sure that as much of the budget as possible goes in the ground, and it will force the geologists or the exploration manager to only test those targets they believe will deliver results. Only then can we improve discovery rates,” he said.

Another important point: Juniors need to be thinking ahead. Way ahead. Welton noted that a greenfield program typically will take 15 years to make a discovery, and another 10 to 15 years to progress the discovery into a mine.

“Our portfolio today will be delivering metals and minerals to the market in 15 to 25 years time. As explorationists can we predict what the world will want in 15 years?” He gave the example of Rio’s Jadar lithium borate project in Serbia. Preliminary exploration took place in 1998, it wasn’t until 2004 that a discovery hole was drilled, and it took another four years until a JORC-compliant resource estimate was published.

“So we’re 14 years and counting since the discovery. Who could predict the hype around EVs (electric vehicles) and therefore the lithium sector eight years ago?”

To conclude, Welton addressed the question everyone in the audience wanted the answer to: What does a major mining company like Rio Tinto look for in a junior resource firm?

“Our focus is on optionality and upside,” Welton said, adding the company is “not interested in kicking tires or using project reviews to acquire data. We’re reviewing the project because we want to understand if we can add value to progress it.”

He also dismissed a common perception that a major wants to “squeeze the discover out of the project,” noting Rio is generally more interested in projects than companies.

“We rarely want to make placement in companies as you end up with two different parties with different priorities and that makes for conflict in the relationship,” he said. “Initially we seek to put as much money in the ground as possible.”

Mongolia ranked at 93rd among 180 countries www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ Mongolia is ranked at 93rd, scoring 37 according to the 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released today by Transparency International.

Seven killed by swine flu in Mongolia www.punchng.com

The H1N1 flu virus, also known as swine flu, has killed seven adults in Mongolia since the beginning of this year, the country’s health minister says on Tuesday.

Mongolia launches 10-mw solar power plant www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- A solar power plant with an installed capacity of 10 megawatts has been officially launched in Mongolia's central province of Govisumber, Mongolian state television reported on Monday.

Bacteriology laboratory opens at aimag hospital www.montsame.mn

Uvs /MONTSAME/. In the frameworks of the Fifth Health Sector Development Project funded by the Asian Development Bank, a bacteriology laboratory has been opened at the Uvs aimag hospital.

With the repairs and various medical equipments that have been installed at the hospital’s central sterile supply department, bacteriology laboratory as well as the aimag branch blood bank, the total cost for the work that has been done at the aimag hospital reached a total of MNT 2.1 billion.

The opening of the laboratory was attended by Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar, Minister of Environment and Tourism N.Tserenbat as well as the aimag’s governing body and the doctors of the hospital. In aims of improving the safety of blood transfusions, strengthening medical waste management and preventing and controlling hospital acquired infections, the project is also being implemented at the tertiary hospitals and in the 7 districts of Ulaanbaatar.

Launch of the project ‘Build4Skills’ takes place www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Launch of the project ‘Strengthening vocational education and training skills’, which will be jointly run by the German Embassy in Mongolia, the Asian Development Bank and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, took place today, January 28 at Tuushin hotel.

Mongolia to repay USD 2.9 billion external debt in 2021-2023 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ On January 25, during the plenary session of the parliament, a response was provided to MP D.Erdenebat’s inquiry to the Prime Minister on the intervention regarding exchange rate growth, coordination of monetary and fiscal policies and the government debt.

Nigerian man arrested in Mongolia for alleged drug trafficking www.news.mn

Mongolian police have yesterday (January 28th) arrested a Nigerian citizen for alleged drug trafficking. According to official source, the suspect received a huge shipment of drugs through the postal service.

MIAT to operate nonstop Ulaanbaatar-Berlin service www.news.mn

Mongolian Airlines (MIAT) announced that they will be operating a nonstop route between Ulaanbaatar and Berlin, the capital city of Germany. These nonstop flights are expected to start from July or August 2019.

Tugstsogt Nyambayar a hit in Brooklyn; earns WBC featherweight title shot www.ringtv.com

NEW YORK — The vision is precise, and certainly tells the mind in light-speed time what to do and when to react. That’s all Tugstsogt Nyambayar, the Mongolian 2012 Olympic flyweight silver medalist, needs.

Just that sliver of an opening. Just that minute drop of a glove.

Then he strikes.

He lands with accuracy, and thudding impact, and the game southpaw Claudio Marrero was able to uphold the frequent barrages. He just couldn’t stave off the fissures in his defense that “King Tug” mined.

In his biggest challenge to date as a professional, King Tug won a twelve round unanimous decision over Marrero in the WBC world featherweight title eliminator on the FS1 portion of the PBC on Fox from Barclays Center on Saturday night.

“We had a really good camp so this is just me putting the pressure and pace that we worked on in camp and using it in the ring,” said Nyambayar, after going twelve rounds for the first time in his career. “This sets me up for big fights. Whatever big fights are presented to us, we’ll take it.”

Nyambayar (11-0, 9 knockouts) outlanded Marrero (23-3, 17 KOs) 119 to 114, but needed 509 punches to get there, for 23.4 percent, while Marrero threw a total of 714 punches (16 percent).

Perhaps the most telling stat came in the jabs. King Tug landed just 10, but he threw just 98 (10.2 percent), while Marrero landed 12 jabs of 345 (3.5 percent).

In the 10th, referee Benjy Esteves took a point away from Marrero for hitting Nyambayar on the break. With a welt building below Marrero’s left eye, King Tug engaged again and even landed a low blow, but Esteves didn’t charge Nyambayar with a point.

In the last round, Marrero wanted to battle Nyambayar, but he attacked wildly, and Nyambayar picked him apart with piercing counter rights. Then, Nyambayar thought he would have some fun in closing, hopping around the ring with his arms up.

In the end, Nyambayar had his hand raised, after judges Julie Lederman (114-113), Eric Marlinski (115-112) and John Poturaj (116-111) saw him as the winner.

If Chris Colbert wanted to garner attention, he certainly did with his fluorescent pink look on the top of his head, to the bathrobe he wore into the ring, complete with white fur around the collar.

Colbert, the Brooklyn-based fighter known as “Little B-Hop,” was facing a challenge in Joshuah Hernandez (8-2, 7 KOs) a sinewy, skilled fighter from Chicago who had just lost once prior to meeting Colbert.

The pair fought in close quarters in the first two rounds, with Hernandez sporting a bloody nose for his efforts.

In the third, Colbert (10-0, 3 KOs) showed he could fight southpaw or orthodox, switching things up on Hernandez and making him hesitant. Through four rounds, Colbert had outlanded Hernandez 76-34.

Hernandez tried crowding Colbert in a corner in the fifth, though, to no avail. Colbert bore through the slight onslaught, and even landed a hard right. Too bad Colbert doesn’t possess heavy, one-punch power.

The pair finished the sixth with a wild exchange, after Colbert motioned with his glove to incite Hernandez into coming forward. The two then blasted away until the bell closed the round.

It was a spirited brawl in which Colbert came out ahead.

“He put up a great fight,” Colbert said about Hernandez. “Today I decided not to give the crowd a boxing lesson, I decided I wanted to show them that I can stand and fight with anybody if I choose to. We’re going to keep making these fights easier and easier.

“I have very high-quality fight and I’m getting better and better as we go. I’m looking forward to getting more opportunities.”

In a scheduled six-round super lightweight fight, Antuanne Russell (8-0, 8 KOs) stopped very overmatched Roberto Almazan (7-9, 2 KOs) at :59 of the second round with a pair of knockdowns, both off of right hooks off the top of the head.

It wasn’t much of an exhibition. Russell was clearly the superior fighter and Almazan appeared in survival mode from the opening bell. It didn’t take long for referee Shada Murdaugh to see enough and wave it over.

“I listened to my corner’s directions and they told me that the hook was going to be there when he shot his left hand,” Russell said after what amounted to a sparring session. “I went to my hook position and I was ready to catch and fire.

“This is nothing new to me. I just try to execute what I’m told and sharpen my craft. We’re going back to the drawing board and we’ll be patient.”