Financier Robert Friedland wins Mongolia’s Order of Polar Star

Ivanhoe Electric Inc. [IE-TSX, NYSE American] and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. [IVN-TSX, IVPAF-OTC] have congratulated financier Robert Friedland on receiving Mongolia’s Order of the Polar Star.

The award celebrates Friedland’s leadership in the discovery and development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold complex, one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world. The award also recognizes Friedland’s many valuable contributions to Mongolia’s mining industry, the company’s said in a press release.

Friedland, the Ivanhoe Mines founder and Executive Co-Chairman, met with Mongolia’s Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry, Ganbaatar Jambal, during a recent trip to Ulaanbaatar.

Between 1996 and 2012, the original Ivanhoe Mines and its subsidiaries, conducted and participated in mining operations in Mongolia, Australia, China, Myanmar, South Korea and Fiji. In 2000, Ivanhoe began exploration in Mongolia that led to a decade of discoveries that revealed a 12.4-kilometre-long, tier-one chain of copper and gold deposits in the South Gobi region.

Open pit mining began at Oyu Tolgoi in 2011. The copper concentrator, the largest industrial complex ever built in Mongolia, began processing mined ore into copper concentrate in 2013.

International mining giant Rio Tinto Rio Tinto Plc [RIO-NYSE], acquired control of the original Ivanhoe Mines in 2012 and now operates the Oyu Tolgoi mine in a joint venture with Mongolia, which owns 34% of the project.

At peak production, Oyu Tolgoi is expected to operate in the first quartile of the copper cash cost curve, producing around 500,000 tonnes of copper annually on average from 2028 to 2036 from the open pit and underground, enough to produce 6.0 million electric vehicles annually, and an average of 290,000 tonne over a reserve life of around 30 years.

The underground ore reserve has an average copper grade of 1.52%, which is more than three times higher than the open-pit ore reserve, and contains 0.31 g/t gold.

Friedland is now Executive Co-Chairman of the current Ivanhoe Mines, which is developing and producing across its portfolio of tier-one mineral assets in Southern Africa, including the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the Dominican Republic of Congo.

Kamoa-Kakula is on track to become the world’s third-largest copper producer, and the largest copper mine in Africa, by 2027, with expected annual production of 650,000 tonnes.

Friedland is also the founder and Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe Electric, which is led by President and CEO Taylor Melvin.

The company has said it is aiming to develop mineral deposits in the U.S. in order to support American supply chain independence and to deliver critical metals needed for electrification of the economy.

The company recently said it is planning to launch a preliminary feasibility study at the Santa Cruz Copper project in Arizona