Ivanhoe: Working To Satisfy Remaining Oyu Tolgoi Conditions

Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.T) is working with Rio Tinto (RIO.AU) to satisfy the remaining conditions in order to complete the investment agreement for the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia, Ivanhoe CEO Robert Friedman said Thursday at a mining conference.

The agreement is subject to conditions that must be met by April 6, including the completion of a feasibility study currently under way.

Friedman said Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto had satisfied 7 of 10 conditions so far and were "working hard" to satisfy the rest.

Friedman praised Mongolia as an investment destination and said the current Prime Minister, Sukhbaataryn Batbold, was a "great visionary."

He said the Oyu Tolgoi project would leverage Rio Tinto's experience in helping develop the Escondida mine in Chile and the Grasberg mine in Indonesia, two projects which he said Oyu Tolgoi would come to be compared with.

Ivanhoe and Rio struck a long-awaited investment agreement with the Mongolian government in October last year; the government will now take a 34% stake in the project.

Friedman was also bullish on the company's coal prospects in Mongolia, describing the Ovuut Tolgoi coal project, also in Mongolia as containing the "beluga caviar" of coal.

-By James Campbell, Dow Jones Newswires, +656415-4082; james.campbell@dowjones.com

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