By Sudesh Baniya
Copyright dohanews
The company says the Qatari sovereign wealth fund’s investment will be funnelled towards quenching increasing demands for ‘green metals’.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) announced on Wednesday that it had invested $500 million (about QAR 1.82 billion) in Canada-based diversified mining company, Ivanhoe Mines.
Once the investment, made through a strategic private placement, is finalised, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund will hold approximately four per cent of Ivanhoe Mines’ outstanding shares.
Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi, QIA’s Chief Executive Officer, described it as a strategic investment, made in line with the fund’s overarching goal of delivering sustainable and long-term value.
“[The investment] reflects QIA’s conviction not only in Ivanhoe Mines’ world-class portfolio of tier-one assets,” Al-Sowaidi said in a statement, “but more importantly, in supporting its team in finding, developing, and sustainably supplying the critical minerals essential to the global energy transition and advanced technology applications.”
Closing of the deal is still subject to “satisfaction of customary conditions for a transaction of this nature” as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange’s approval, Ivanhoe said in a statement.
The raised funds will be used to “advance growth opportunities related to the exploration, development, and mining of critical minerals”, in addition to its general corporate purposes, it added.
Incorporated in 1993 as a precursor to its current form, Ivanhoe Mines currently specialises in the extraction of green metals such as copper, zinc, and nickel, among others, in three principal projects across Southern Africa.
Demands for those metals have continued to skyrocket in the face of the transition to clean energy and increased manufacturing and adoption of electric vehicles, solar panels, turbines, and electric grid expansions.
QIA’s investment, hence, is a huge boost to the company’s vision to emerge as a leading supplier of such critical metals in this backdrop, said Ivanhoe Mines’ Executive Co-Chair, Robert Friedland.
“QIA’s forward-looking vision is fully aligned with our own, as well as that of our other long-term strategic investors. We look forward to building this partnership together for years to come,” he added.
Ivanhoe Mines and QIA are also intending to collaborate on further strategic partnerships, in connection with the investment, the company added in the announcement.
The announcement follows QIA’s recent confirmation that it joined a consortium investing in PsiQuantum, a company aiming to develop the world’s first commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum computer.
Early in September, QIA announced that it had joined a cohort of major global investors in U.S.-based artificial intelligence safety and research company Anthropic’s Series F fundraise worth $13 billion (approximately QAR 47.3 billion).
