LONDON (Reuters) - Africa has the potential to play a significant part in satisfying what is expected to be strong medium-term growth in global copper demand, Rio Tinto said on Wednesday.

"The medium term outlook is quite positive. There's a very strong picture on demand, supply looks like it's going to continue to be constrained," Andrew Harding, CEO Rio Tinto Copper told delegates at Metal Bulletin's African Copper conference in London.

"African copper will play a pretty significant part in the global future for the industry," he added.

African copper deposits tend to be high grade -- around one-fifth of all global resources with a grade of over 1.0 percent copper are in the region, Harding said.

They also have valuable by-products.

Harding said copper output in the region could rise from around 1.2 million tonnes to nearly 3.0 million by 2015.

Production from Africa is needed due to several factors, including falling ore grades in some of the world's major mines.

Also, new deposits are being found at increasingly greater depths, while some existing mines are moving underground.

This brings with it technical difficulties and higher operating costs.

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE69C0DD20101013