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Ivanhoe Mines Announces Financial Results And Review Of Operations For The First Quarter Of 2011 |
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Monday, 16 May 2011 07:12 |
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Start on pre-stripping of Oyu Tolgoi open-pit mine set for third quarter of 2011
Ivanhoe Mines announced its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. All figures are in US dollars, unless otherwise stated. HIGHLIGHTS DURING THE QUARTER AND SUBSEQUENT WEEKS - On February 3, 2011, Ivanhoe announced that its strategic rights offering to shareholders had generated US$1.18 billion (CDN$1.17 billion) in gross proceeds to be used to advance development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold-silver project in Mongolia. Upon the closing of the rights offering, Ivanhoe Mines issued a total of 84.9 million common shares, which represented 99.5% of the maximum number of common shares that were available under the rights offering.
- Full-scale construction at Oyu Tolgoi continues to advance and key elements of the project, including the concentrator complex, remain ahead of schedule. Commercial production is expected to commence in the first half of 2013.
- Pre-stripping for the phase-one, open-pit mine on the Southern Oyu deposits at Oyu Tolgoi is on schedule to begin during the third quarter of 2011.
- Official approvals were received in early May 2011 enabling the Oyu Tolgoi Project to proceed with construction of a 95-kilometre high-voltage power transmission line to deliver electricity expected to be imported from China to supply the initial mining operation.
- The development of the first lift of the phase-two underground block-cave mine at Oyu Tolgoi’s Hugo North Deposit continued successfully during Q1’11. Lateral mine development on the 1,300-metre level at Hugo North is ahead of schedule, achieving an advance during Q1’11 of 1,286.4 metres.
- Exploration drilling at Oyu Tolgoi’s Southwest Oyu Deposit targeted the down-plunge extension of mineralization below the already defined drill resource. The drilling identified previously undefined mineralization, including 98 metres of 1.75 grams of gold per tonne and 0.64% copper, with a copper-equivalent grade of 1.8%, at a down-hole depth of between 1,086 and 1,184 metres.
- On March 14, 2011, Ivanhoe and BHP Billiton Ltd. announced that they had discovered a new zone of shallow copper-molybdenum-gold mineralization on their Ulaan Khud North joint-venture exploration licence, approximately 10 kilometres north of Oyu Tolgoi.
- During Q1’11, Ivanhoe’s 57%-owned subsidiary, SouthGobi Resources (SGQ: TSX; 1878: HK), reported coal sales of $20.2 million from its Ovoot Tolgoi mine in southern Mongolia, representing approximately 450,000 tonnes of coal sold to customers in China at an average realized price of approximately $50 per tonne.
- Ivanhoe’s 62%-owned subsidiary, Ivanhoe Australia (IVA: ASX, TSX), continued to focus on the development of its Merlin high-grade molybdenum and rhenium deposit in the Cloncurry region of Queensland. Construction of the decline to access the Merlin mineralization had progressed to 641 metres by the end of Q1’11.
- Altynalmas Gold, 50%-owned by Ivanhoe Mines, is continuing its drilling program designed to continue the delineation of resources and reserves to NI 43-101 standards at the Kyzyl Gold Project in Kazakhstan. A total of 18,496 metres were drilled during Q1’11 on the Bakyrchik Mining Lease.
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Last Updated on Monday, 16 May 2011 07:19 |