The Chief Executive Officer of Ivanhoe Mines, Robert Friedland is extremely pleased with the progress being made at the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. The massive gold and copper mine is expected to begin production ahead of schedule and under budget as per Mr Friedland.
The brash Canadian CEO was speaking at the Diggers & Dealers conference in Western Australia where he said that 33% of the development of the mine was complete and the project was moving along smoothly. He added that the company was actually worth double its current value given the superior asset that they were developing.
They had currently employed 14,200 people in the construction activities at the mine that is located just 80 km north of the Chinese border. Ivanhoe Mines are developing the mine in conjunction with Rio Tinto which is their main shareholder controlling 46% of the company’s stake. The company said that they would be spending $2.3 billion on the construction of the Oyu Tolgoi mine in the year 2011. Commercial production from the mine situated in the Gobi Desert will begin in 2013.
It is likely to produce 1.2 million pounds of copper and 650,000 ounces of gold annually for the first 10 years of the mine’s life. Mr Friedland said that the potential life of the Mongolian mine was more than 100 years. It would begin as a 100,000 t/d open pit operation that had a concentrator plat and other related facilities and infrastructure. A 85,000 t/d underground block cave mine would begin production in 2015.