ID :
93805
Tue, 12/08/2009 - 17:40
Auther :

IVANHOE, RIO TINTO SPEND US$ 758 MILLION TO MONGOLIAN MINE

Ulaanbaatar, /MONTSAME/ Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., the Canadian miner developing the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia with Rio Tinto Group, says the companies may spend $758 million next year to develop the copper and gold deposit.
Ivanhoe and Rio signed an agreement in October with Mongolia’s government to develop Oyu Tolgoi, which Rio has called the world’s largest copper-gold resource.
“The approval of the 2010 construction budget represents the next big step toward bringing this project into production,” John Macken , Vancouver-based Ivanhoe’s chief executive officer, said Tuesday in a statement. “Ivanhoe is considering a schedule that could see construction of the initial open-pit mine completed in 2012 and commercial production begin in 2013.”
The 2010 spending plan depends on 10 conditions that need to be satisfied following the signing of an agreement with Mongolia on Oct. 6. Seven conditions, including an increase in London-based Rio’s stake in Ivanhoe to 19.7 percent from 9.9 percent, have already been met, Ivanhoe said.
Ivanhoe rose 15 cents, or 1.2 percent, to C$12.70 at 4:10 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading . The shares have climbed more than threefold this year. Rio gained 44.5 pence, or 1.4 percent, to 3,169.5 pence in London trading.
Oyu Tolgoi may produce more than 1 billion pounds of copper and 500,000 ounces of gold annually in the first decade of production, Macken has said.
The project site, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Mongolia-Chinese border, contains about 78.9 billion pounds of copper and 45.2 million ounces of gold in measured, indicated and inferred categories, according to company estimates from March 2008.
S.Batbayar

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