Ivanhoe Mines seeking strategic advice for company future

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. [IVN-TSX; IVPAF-OTC] reported that its board of directors has authorized the company to seek strategic advice at the project and corporate levels to help address unsolicited interest that the company and its projects have received in recent months.

Executive Chairman Robert Friedland said, “The mining industry has taken notice of our company. Our remarkable Kakula Discovery on the Central African Copperbelt certainly is helping to generate attention. We have received a number of unsolicited inquiries from significant mining industry participants in Asia, Europe, Africa and elsewhere. In response, our board has taken the prudent decision to seek strategic advice.”

Mr. Friedland said it’s expected that an investment bank will be retained, whose mandate will be to examine and advise the board on all strategic options and alternatives available to the company.

The Kakula target, located 5km south of Ivanhoe’s Kamoa copper deposit 25 km west of Kolwzi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is characterized by a blanket-like structure of high-grade copper mineralization with a strike length of over 3 km at a depth of about 350 metres. Recent drilling has yielded exceptionally high grades of copper. For example, drill hole DD1016 intersected 8.75 metres (true width) of 9.84% copper at a 3.0% copper cut-off, beginning at a downhole depth of 362.0 metres; 9.27 metres (true width) of 9.11% copper at a 2.5% copper cut-off; 10.22 metres (true width) of 8.49% copper at a 2.0% copper cut-off; and 18.78 metres (true width) of 5.32% at a 1.0% copper cut-off. Other holes returned equally encouraging assays.

The Kamoa Project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining.

The company also has commenced investor and banking analyst tours of its projects, including the Kakula Discovery. Ivanhoe Mines’ Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Johansson said it is important for analysts and investors to gain a first-hand understanding of the progress and potential of our project offering and to see the scale of the Kakula Discovery. “Following this, we can obtain strategic advice and make informed decisions that benefit our shareholders and the other governmental, community and local stakeholders in our projects.”

Ivanhoe Mines will provide further comment only if a specific transaction or process is concluded or if further disclosure is required or deemed appropriate. There can be no assurance that the company will pursue any transaction or that a transaction, if pursued, will be completed.

Ivanhoe Mines is advancing its three principal projects in Sub-Saharan Africa: Mine development at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel-copper discovery on the Northern Limb of South Africa’s Bushveld Complex; mine development and exploration at the Kamoa Copper Project – which includes the remarkable Kakula high-grade copper discovery – on the Central African Copperbelt in the DRC; and upgrading and exploration at the historic, high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-lead-germanium mine, also on the DRC’s Copperbelt.