Form 20-F o | Form 40-F þ |
Yes: o | No: þ |
IVANHOE MINES LTD. |
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Date: October 3, 2007 | By: | /s/ Beverly A. Bartlett | ||
BEVERLY A. BARTLETT | ||||
Vice President & Corporate Secretary |
October 3, 2007 Statement by the Ivanhoe Mines Board of Directors |
| Ivanhoe Mines now has no interests or activities in Myanmar and has no personnel in Myanmar employed by or representing the company. Under terms of Ivanhoes negotiation of its strategic partnership with Rio Tinto announced in October 2006, Ivanhoe completed its divestment of all of its interests in Myanmar to an independent, third-party Trust on February 27, 2007. | |
| Since the divestment, Ivanhoe Mines has not received any revenue or profits from any operation in Myanmar including its former 50% interest in the Monywa Copper Project. | |
| As Ivanhoe has publicly disclosed, ownership of its Myanmar assets was transferred to the independent, third-party Trust in exchange for an unsecured promissory note. The promissory note will be repaid when the Trust completes a sale of the assets or receives any payments that can be applied to repayment of the promissory note. The promissory note is held by a wholly-owned Ivanhoe subsidiary. The promissory note does not establish a fixed amount to be paid to Ivanhoe following a sale. Ivanhoe has established a reserve price, which is the minimum amount that it would accept from the Trust for the sale of assets. The reserve price is not being disclosed in advance of discussions between the Trust and potential buyers, for obvious commercial reasons. If no sale were to be completed, Ivanhoe Mines would write off the amount owed on the promissory note as a loss as part of its regular financial accounting procedures. | |
| Ivanhoe Mines has not recovered the more than $100 million it has invested in the development and operation of the Monywa Copper Project and has not made a profit on the investment. MICCL, the Myanmar joint venture company that owns and operates the Monywa Copper Project, has not made regular dividend payments to its joint-venture shareholders during the almost nine years of mine operations. Decisions on such payments are made by the MICCL Board of Directors and Ivanhoe Mines no longer has any representation on the board. Ivanhoe did report receipt of a US$15 million dividend from the Monywa Project in the first quarter of 2007, which accrued from the Monywa Projects operations during 2006 and was received by Ivanhoe before Ivanhoes interest in the Monywa Project was transferred to the Trust in February 2007. | |
| As the present owner of the 50% Monywa interest asset formerly held by Ivanhoe Mines, the Trust subsequently received a payment from MICCL earlier this year. The Trust was obligated to use the proceeds received from MICCL to reduce by US$6.6 million the amount owed under the outstanding promissory note issued by the Trust for the sale of the Ivanhoe assets to the Trust. Receipt of the payment was reported in Ivanhoes Second Quarter statement on August 10, 2007. | |
| As previously reported, the Trust engaged a sale-service provider in March 2007 to identify potential third-party purchasers, solicit expressions of interest from such potential purchasers, negotiate sale terms and facilitate the sale of the Myanmar assets on behalf of the Trust. The Trust is continuing discussions with potential purchasers. | |
| Following any sale of the former Ivanhoe Myanmar Assets, the Trust will use the proceeds to pay the sale-service providers fee and any other expenses or liabilities incurred in carrying out the sale. The Trust then will use the remaining proceeds of sale, less contractually specified deductions, to repay the promissory note held by Ivanhoes subsidiary. All the remaining assets of the Trust, which are expected to consist solely of cash, then will be distributed to the designated beneficiaries of the Trust, which will be one or more recognized charitable organizations selected by the Trust. | |
| The trustee is a major, bona fide, third-party independent trust company. It is a long-established firm that provides arms-length commercial services to a significant number of international trusts. Further details on the Trust are contained in Ivanhoes 2007 Annual Information Form. |