Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Ivanhoe Electric (IE) that will see Ma’aden subscribing to new shares in IE resulting in a 9.9% equity interest for $126 million. As part of the agreement, Ma’aden and IE will also establish a 50:50 joint venture to explore copper, gold, nickel and silver in Saudi Arabia. This is a significant investment for Ma’aden giving it strategic presence in a leading international mining company with its own proprietary technology and increasing its international exposure to critical minerals.
The Heads of Terms was signed at the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is expected to be completed by the end of Q1 2023. Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (IE) is a NYSE-listed mineral exploration and development company in the United States that combines advanced mineral exploration technologies, renewable energy storage solutions and electric metals projects.
The joint venture between Ma’aden and Ivanhoe will explore approximately 48,500 km2 of selected licenses areas that demonstrate excellent potential. IE will commit approximately USD66 million from funds raised through the share subscription to the joint venture to fund the purchase of three new generation Typhoon™ machines and the exploration of prospective lands to be provided by Ma’aden for metallic minerals within the Kingdom.
Through the joint venture, Ma’aden will obtain royalty free access to IE’s proprietary Typhoon technology, which conducts geophysical surveys using high powered transmitters to detect the presence of sulfide minerals containing copper, nickel, gold and silver.
