Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) will of the closed Ranger uranium mine in Australia鈥檚 Northern Territory amid major delays and spiralling costs weighing on the project.
The company鈥檚 majority owned uranium producer Energy Resources of Australia (ASX: ERA) halted activities at Ranger in 2021, after 40 years of operation. The initial goal was to finish the clean-up and restoration of the site by 2026, with an estimated cost of around A$800 million ($520m at today鈥檚 rates).
Following several delays and cost overruns, ERA warned investors in September that total expenses were now projected to 鈥渟ignificantly surpass鈥� A$2.2 billion ($1.43bn). It also said the program鈥檚 completion date would be postponed until after 2028.
The world鈥檚 second largest miner said the agreement reached with ERA will see it take over management of the rehabilitation program immediately, but noted that full transition was expected to take about three months.
鈥淭he ERA team has worked incredibly hard and made good progress rehabilitating Ranger,鈥� CEO Brad Welsh said in . 鈥淗owever, as the project moves into a new phase it will benefit from Rio Tinto鈥檚 global expertise in mine closure.鈥�
Rio鈥檚 Australia head Kellie Parker noted that taking over Ranger鈥檚 management meant the company could 鈥渄irectly provide more closure and project delivery experience and know-how to this critical task.鈥�
The mining giant said it would now focus on finalizing required studies and executing the necessary rehabilitation activities.
ERA, in which Rio Tinto holds an 86.3% stake,聽said that an updated timeline for the project will be disclosed when finalized at a later time.