[miningmx.com] — Global miner Rio Tinto said it would invest an additional $2.7bn to modernise its Kitimat aluminium smelter in Canada’s British Columbia.
With this investment, the Anglo-Australian mining giant expects to complete the development of the $3.3bn project in 2014.
Rio Tinto expects the modernisation of the smelter to increase its production capacity by more than 48% to about 420,000 tonnes per year, it said in a statement.
The diversified miner also said it has completed the sale of the Colowyo Mine, a thermal coal mine in Western Colorado to Western Fuels-Colorado LLC.
The sale, which was agreed on Sept. 16, results in the completion of Rio Tinto’s divestment of all its US thermal coal mines.
Rio Tinto said the terms of the deal were confidential but since 2008 it had completed more than 20 divestments with total gross proceeds of more than $11bn.
