Rio Tinto to invest $170 mln in Argentina port

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Global mining giant Rio Tinto plans to invest $170 million to build a terminal at Argentina's southern port of Bahia Blanca to export potassium chloride (potash), government official said on Tuesday. The new terminal to handle the compound, used mostly to make fertilizer, will serve Rio Tinto's $900 million, Rio Colorado mine, to enter construction in Mendoza province this year. "Yesterday (on Monday) the concession was signed to build the plant and terminal and use the property in the port zone of Bahia Blanca for 50 years, with an option to renew for another 50 years," said a spokesman from Argentina's mine secretariat. The Rio Colorado project is on the border between Argentina's west-central Mendoza and Neuquen provinces. Once built, the mine will produce 2.4 million tonnes of potassium chloride per year, making the country the No. 5 global producer of the chemical compound better known as potash. It was not immediately clear when Rio Tinto would start construction on the Bahia Blanca terminal as certain permits on the Rio Colorado project have been delayed. The project will include the development of rail infrastructure between the port and the mine, a distance of some 1,100 kilometers (683 miles). --Reporting by Karina Grazina