Freeport Indonesia to process 400,000t of copper concentrate at new smelter
Earlier this month, Freeport obtained an export permit for the rest of the year from the government.
Ivanhoe Mines (now Turquoise Hill Resources) added 5% on Tuesday, bringing its three-day haul to almost 10% and giving it a market value of $6.7 billion.
After 13 years as a listed entity Tuesday was the last day the stock will trade under the symbol IVN following the name change which became effective last week. Trading under the new symbol “TRQ” starts on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Market tomorrow.
Ivanhoe shareholders have seen the value of their holdings plummet over the last year – despite the gains this week the company is still trading down 50% since the start of the year.
The stock – a favourite of resource investors – has been been on a wild ride since hitting an all time high above $28 in January last year affording it a peak market cap of $20 billion.
The changes follow Rio Tinto taking full control of the of the Vancouver-based company in a deal that led to the replacement of the board and founder Robert Friedland with Rio insiders.
Ivanhoe had tried to sell off non-core assets to go it alone at Oyu Tolgoi, its massive copper-gold-silver mine near the Chinese border in Mongolia, but by April Rio had to step up with funding and took over the project.
Oyu Tolgoi (turquoise hill in the vernacular) is one of the biggest mining projects in the world.
Ivanhoe has already spent over $5 billion on Oyu Tolgoi with final overall costs estimated at as much as $13 billion. Ivanhoe holds 66% of Oyu Tolgoi and Mongolia’s government the rest.
The mine is set to produce more than 1.2 billion pounds of copper, 650,000 ounces of gold and 3 million ounces of silver each year with commercial production starting in the first half of 2013.
