Miner Rio Tinto (RTP) said Wednesday that it will exercise all of its series A warrants which will increase its ownership of Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) shares by 7.3% to 29.6%. The warrants entitle Rio Tinto to acquire 46.03 million shares of Ivanhoe Mines at a price of $8.54 per share for approximately $393 million.
“Rio Tinto’s early exercise of its warrants is an important step toward securing the financing and funding for Oyu Tolgoi [the copper-gold mining complex in Mongolia] as we move into the first summer of full-scale, site-wide work under the 2010 construction budget,” Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines Robert Friedland said in a statement.
The Series A warrants were acquired by Rio Tinto in October 2006 as part of the private-placement agreement with Ivanhoe Mines.
With this transaction, Rio Tinto now has invested $1.73 billion in Ivanhoe Mines.
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