Turquoise Hill Gains as Mongolian PM Gives Mine Funding Support

Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ) Ltd. rose to a one-month high after Mongolia’s Prime Minister Altankhuyag Norov said his government fully supports project financing to restart construction on the second phase of the Oyu Tolgoi mine.

The four or five issues holding up the financing agreement are not connected to the government, Altankhuyag yesterday told a group of foreign investors, adding that his government has signaled to partner Rio Tinto Group that Mongolia is ready to wrap up the funding.

Mongolia and Rio, the world’s second-largest mining company, have been negotiating on a raft of disputes related to the mine and its financing. In August, Rio halted development on the underground portion of the mine as the talks stalled.

“We need funding for the project as soon as possible,” Altankhuyag said at a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ulaanbaatar. “On March 31, we expressed our position to the potential funders of the second phase that the Mongolian government is ready to get the loan.”

Shares of Turquoise Hill rose 4.9 percent to close at $3.66 yesterday in New York.

Rio controls the project through its 51 percent stake in Vancouver-based Turquoise Hill, which owns 66 percent of Oyu Tolgoi LLC. The Mongolian government holds the remaining 34 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Kohn in Ulaanbaatar at mkohn5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net Keith Gosman

Comments

Popular posts from this blog