Friday, October 23, 2009

Ivanhoe Targets 20 Million Tonnes Of Mongolia Coal

-- Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., developing a $4 billion copper and gold mine in Mongolia with Rio Tinto Group, is targeting long-term coal production of 20 million tons a year from the country.

The company, through its SouthGobi Energy Resources Ltd. unit, wants to supply 1 percent of China’s coal supply within 10 years, Chairman Robert Friedland said today in an interview in Beijing. China is the world’s biggest coal consumer.

Mongolia may become the “Saudi Arabia of coal,” Friedland said earlier at the China Eurasia Investment Forum.

SouthGobi’s Ovoot Tolgoi mine, located 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the border with China, has 114.1 million metric tons of coal reserves, according to an October presentation on the company’s Web site. It’s targeting sales of almost 15 million tons by 2015.

Third-quarter coal sales from Ovoot Tolgoi were forecast to rise 17 percent to 450,000 tons, according to the presentation.

Ivanhoe Mines, based in Vancouver, owns 80 percent of SouthGobi.

Source: Bloomberg

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