Resource Inventory Gives Ivanhoe A Lion-hearted Look
The Age
Wednesday September 10, 2008
BILLIONAIRE mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland has put some meat on his recent local spin-off, Ivanhoe Australia (IVA), by revealing the metal inventory at IVA's Cloncurry projects in Queensland stands at more than 3.1 million tonnes of copper and 5.1 million ounces of gold.
The $625 million August float by Mr Friedland's Canada-based Ivanhoe of its local offshoot was unique in that IVA came to the market without stock exchange-compliant resources, due mainly to the more onerous resource reporting requirements of the Canadian market.IVA put that straight yesterday after sufficient work had been done at the group's three Cloncurry projects - Mount Elliott, Mount Dore and the Starra Line - to allow the better than forecast resource estimate to be made.IVA will be hoping that the market will be impressed enough to re-rate its shares. Floated at $2 a share in early August to mainly overseas investors, IVA closed yesterday at $1.475, down 2.5 a share.Mr Friedland wants a stronger share price so IVA can use scrip as collateral in mergers and acquisitions in the local market. IVA was floated with Ivanhoe owning 80% of the stock. But Ivanhoe bought shares after the stock debuted at below the $2 issue price and now holds 83%.Mount Elliott has been confirmed as IVA's big find.It has been estimated at 475million tonnes grading 0.5% copper and 0.3 grams of gold a tonne (2.37 million tonnes of contained copper and 4.58 million ounces of gold).In the group's prospectus, IVA tipped that the resource was likely to be in the 300 million to 400 million tonne range. The deposit remains to be fully tested with the drill bit. IVA said that there was a "strong possibility of significant resource extensions".Mount Elliott is being looked at as a development that would yield 70,000 tonnes of copper and 140,000 ounces of gold annually. But smaller Starra Line (annual potential of 15,000 tonnes of copper and 40,000 ounces of gold) and Mount Dore (35,000 tonnes of copper) are to be developed first.
© 2008 The Age
