By Rhiannon Hoyle
SYDNEY--A decision on whether Rio Tinto PLC will develop its Winu copper-and-gold deposit in Western Australia has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but is likely to happen before the end of 2021, Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said Thursday.
"We will have to consider whether to sanction a project [at Winu] before the end of this year," but "Covid has slowed it down," he told reporters after a shareholder meeting in Australia. "We probably had expected to do it a little bit earlier, but it still makes it a very, very fast development."
Mr. Stausholm said he couldn't provide an exact time frame on when a decision would be made.
Rio Tinto has previously said it could be operating a mine at the deposit, which it discovered in 2019, in 2024.
Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-06-21 0557ET