Ma’aden subscribes for more Ivanhoe Electric shares to maintain 9.9% stake

Ivanhoe Electric (NYSE American: IE) (TSX: IE) announced on Monday that its Saudi Arabian joint venture Ma’aden is exercising its top-up right to maintain its 9.9% shareholding following the company’s recent equity offering.

On September 19, Ivanhoe closed a $184 million public offering through the issuance of approximately 11.85 million common shares at $13.50 per share. BMO Capital Markets and JP Morgan acted as the joint book-running managers for the offering.

As part of a JV agreement signed in May 2023, Ma’aden has the right to maintain a 9.9% equity stake in the company, and thus will subscribe for an additional 1.51 million common shares at the offering price for total proceeds of approximately $20.4 million. The Saudi state-owned miner previously paid $126.5 million for its original 9.9% stake.

As disclosed in the public offering press release, Ivanhoe will use the net proceeds of the offering to advance its US mineral projects, including a preliminary feasibility study on the Santa Cruz project in Arizona.

Last month, the company released the results of an initial assessment (IA) analyzing the potential for an underground copper mine at Santa Cruz. The IA, which is preliminary in nature, envisioned a 5.9-million-tonne-per-year copper mining operation with an estimated 20-year life.

Shares of Ivanhoe Electric ended Monday’s session 1.0% higher at C$15.00 apiece in Toronto. The Vancouver-based, US-focused copper developer has market capitalization of C$1.3 billion ($930m).