Press release: One week to commission the Concentrator at Oyu Tolgoi

– This is an important milestone, but the most significant is to come in the first half of 2013 when the mine start commercial productions –

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – Oyu Tolgoi President and CEO Cameron McRae, during a press briefing today told reporters that Oyu Tolgoi is on the verge of commissioning the concentrator at the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Khanbogd soum in Umnugobi province, some 600 km from the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

Cameron McRae said “Stable partnership between the Government of Mongolia and third-neighbor investors as well as the contribution of some 15 thousand workers from 44 nations around the world including hundreds of Mongolian supplier companies were important in achievement of building the first phase of the Oyu Tolgoi project”.

“Today we are on the threshold of commissioning the Oyu Tolgoi concentrator. We shall be producing the first concentrate in the first quarter of 2013 and as planned the commercial production of copper concentrate is expected in the first half of next year”, Cameron McRae said at the press briefing for Mongolian media.

The ceremony of activating the Oyu Tolgoi concentrator is being planned for 27 December 2012 at the mine site which is expected to be attended by representatives of the Oyu Tolgoi investors, Board of Directors of Oyu Tolgoi LLC and Mongolian State and Government representative headed by the Prime Minister of Mongolia have been invited to the event.

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), Turquoise Hill Resources (66 per cent) and Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto is the major shareholder in Turquoise Hill Resources 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.

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