Vancouver-based Ivanhoe said earlier on Wednesday that Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund would invest $500 million as part of what Qatari officials said is a goal of “finding, developing, and sustainably supplying the critical minerals essential to global energy transition and advanced technology applications.”
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Ivanhoe has operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa, with exploration projects underway in Angola. Friedland, Ivanhoe’s third-largest shareholder, cited an interest in growing elsewhere in Africa and parts of Asia.
Friedland said Qatar’s investment opens doors, especially in predominantly Islamic countries where he believes there are large, untapped mineral deposits. Roughly 65% of Qatar’s population is Muslim and much of the country’s wealth comes from natural gas production.
Ivanhoe, which counts two Chinese companies as its largest investors, has been among the more prominent users of advanced imaging, artificial intelligence and other high-tech methods to better find geological deposits.
Asked if Ivanhoe is in talks with other potential investors, Friedland said: “We’re in constant dialogue with sovereign partners. They always want more. We have ambitions to grow Ivanhoe Mines into a world-leading mining organization.”
Friedland declined to share details, but added that Ivanhoe was not interested in partnering with hedge funds.
“We are kind of allergic to hedge funds named after Greek gods,” he said, without naming specific investors. “Their investment horizon is sometimes measured in a millionth of a second.”
He characterized the global rush for critical minerals and the potential to find new deposits as similar to the western U.S. mining rush of the late 19th century. “In my 40 years in the industry, I’ve never seen so much interest in critical raw materials,” he said.
Ivanhoe is intrigued about developing titanium projects in Ukraine, he said, but not while the country is in conflict with Russia. The company has no interest in deep-sea mining projects, he added.
Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown and Jamie Freed
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Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent covering critical minerals and the global energy transition, as well as the author of “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power our Lives,” which was longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award and was named the American Energy Society’s Energy Book of the Year. He previously wrote about the U.S. shale revolution – drawing on a two-year stint based in oil-rich North Dakota – as well as politics and the environment. A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine – where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 2021 – and Columbia Journalism School.