Zijin Mining buys 10% of Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines

Chen Jinghe, Chairman of Zijin Mining, and Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, at the strategic investment signing ceremony.

Chinese gold and copper miner Zijin Mining Group is buying a 10% stake in Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN), the Canadian group run by billionaire Robert Friedland with gold, copper, platinum and other metals assets in Africa.

Under the terms of the deal, Ivanhoe Mines will issue roughly 76.8 million common shares to Zijin via a private placement at a price of Cdn$1.36 per share.

The transaction will raise about 484 million (Cdn$105 million) for Ivanhoe, which was trading 17% higher to $1.14 at 11:00 am ET on the news.

The Vancouver-based company is currently developing the Platreef platinum group metals (PGM) project in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex as well as the Kamoa copper project in the Kantanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Ivanhoe and Zijin are in detailed, friendly discussions about the strategic co-development of our Kamoa copper discovery,” revealed Friedland in the joint statement.

This is the second investment by the Chinese group in South Africa’s PGM sector in less than a year.