Rio Tinto lifts force majeure on copper, acid from U.S. mine

Rio Tinto lifted force majeure on Jan. 1 for shipments of refined copper and acid from its Kennecott mine in the United States, 79 days after declaring it could not meet customer commitments, a spokesman said on Friday.The global miner declared force majeure Oct. 13, after halting production of refined copper at its Utah mine smelter following the death of a worker exposed to sulfur dioxide gases at the plant.In the fourth quarter, refined copper production at Kennecott declined 67 percent compa