Press release: From ‘Mine to medals’

– Exhibition on mine and Olympic game partnership opened and heroes are introduced –

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – With just a few days left until the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games, millions of people around the world are impatiently waiting for the games to begin. Yesterday, Rio Tinto, official supplier of the precious metals for medals of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games and manager of Oyu Tolgoi project of Mongolia, opened the exhibition 'From mine to medals'. This exhibition tells the story of how the London Olympic medals have been made and the partnership of Rio Tinto and the 2012 London Olympic Games Organising Committee. The exhibition will be open to public until September.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Cameron McRae, President and CEO of Oyu Tolgoi LLC and resident representative of Rio Tinto in Mongolia said, “Rio Tinto is a Gold partner of the Mongolian National Olympic Committee and a supporter of the Mongolian Olympic team. We are proud to be working with Oyu Tolgoi Ambassador Athletes P. Lkhamdegd, Judoka and G. Mandakhnaran, freestyle wrestler and Kh.Tsagaanbaatar, Olympic bronze medalist Judoka".

During the opening of the exhibition, the winners of 'Rio Tinto Heroes' were introduced. Around the world 77,000 Rio Tinto Group employees, in 40 countries, took part in the 'Rio Tinto Heroes' campaign. Employees were selected through several criteria and the winners received the prize of flights to London and tickets to events at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Among the 80 winners selected worldwide were T.Otgonbayar, Senior Geologist of Reserve, M.Ganbold, Senior Specialist of the Metallurgy Survey, O.Tseesuren, from the Environmental Department of Oyu Tolgoi.

On 2 July Rio Tinto handed over 4,700 gold, silver, bronze medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the Organising Committee of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper mine in the USA and Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia proudly supplied the metal to make the medals.

We invite you all to visit the exhibition, 'From mine to medals', located at the Oyu Tolgoi Information Center.

About Oyu Tolgoi LLC (http://en.ot.mn/)

Oyu Tolgoi LLC is Mongolia's largest copper and gold mining company and is a strategic partnership between the Government of Mongolia (34 per cent stake), Ivanhoe Mines (66 per cent) and Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto is the major shareholder in Ivanhoe Mines and the manager of the Oyu Tolgoi project. In addition to dividends from its 34 per cent stake in Oyu Tolgoi, the Government of Mongolia will receive taxes and royalties.

Oyu Tolgoi, located in the Gobi desert in southern Mongolia, will be one of the largest and highest-grade copper and gold mines in the world. It is the largest project ever developed in Mongolia, requiring a capital investment for phase 1 of more than US$6 billion.

Oyu Tolgoi is committed to contributing to a sustainable future for Mongolia. At least 9 out of 10 employees will be Mongolian once the mine is in production and Oyu Tolgoi is investing US$58 million dollars (78 billion MNT) in training and education and an additional US$27 million dollars (36 billion MNT) in the Workforce Employment Project designed to help address the general skills shortage in Mongolia

Oyu Tolgoi's key priorities are the health and safety of employees, best-practice environmental management, contributing to sustainable communities and always doing business with integrity, for the benefit of all the project's shareholders and the people of Mongolia.

For more information, connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.