Ivanhoe granted Mongolian mining licences

The Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia has issued four 60-year mining licenses to Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T).

The licenses, which are renewable for an additional 40 years, cover 238 sq. km, including the company’s Turquoise Hill copper-gold project in the Mongolia’s South Gobi region. The new licenses replace Ivanhoe’s four exploration licences.

At Turquoise Hill, drilling over the past three years defined some 2.45 billion tonnes grading 0.61% copper and 0.14 gram gold per tonne, based on a cutoff grade of 0.3% copper-equivalent. Another 509 million tonnes of indicated resources runs 0.4% copper and 0.59 gram gold.

Recent drilling near the largest of the Turquoise Hill deposits, Hugo Dummett, cut a high-grade core up to 350 metres to the north, and returned up to 244 metres running 2.9% copper and 1.13 grams.

Ivanhoe owns Turquoise Hill outright, and holds or controls some 111,000 sq. km worth of exploration rights in central and southern Mongolia.