Rio Tinto raises stake in Ivanhoe
Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian miner, said yesterday it has raised its stake in Ivanhoe Mines to 34.9 per cent, following the conversion of a matured convertible credit facility.
Rio Tinto has now invested about $1.73bn (£1.12bn) in Canada’s Ivanhoe, and it holds additional rights to subscribe for common shares in the company, which controls the big Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia.
Ivanhoe, led by well known mining financier Robert Friedland, is developing Oyu Tolgoi in partnership with Rio Tinto and the government of Mongolia.
The $5bn project was finally approved in 2009 after years of negotiations with Mongolian government authorities.
Rio has invested $1.73bn in Ivanhoe over the last four years as part of a private-placement agreement that was signed by both parties back in 2006.
Rio Tinto now owns 184.75 million common shares of Ivanhoe. If Rio were to exercise all of its share purchase warrants it would own about 267.2m common shares, or roughly 44 per cent of the company.
Ivanhoe has been using the funds from Rio to invest in the development of Oyu Tolgoi.