The company initiated a staged assessment of the mine before greenlighting a controlled restart. While two workers sustained injuries during the rockfall, 13 others were treated and discharged locally. Preliminary inspections indicate the incident was localized, sparing the mine’s broader operating systems from lasting impact.

Rio Tinto, which holds a 66% stake in the site alongside the Mongolian government, has been aggressively expanding underground extraction to reach deeper, higher-value deposits. This pause arrives during a period of significant growth for the project, which recently posted a 29% increase in copper output. The company maintains its long-term projection that the mine will become the world’s fourth-largest copper operation by 2030.