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Press Release:

Ivanhoe's Burma Mine Resumes Production, mine valued at zero making money

For Immediate Release
Canadian Friends of Burma
June 2, 2009, Contact: 613-297-6835, or 613-746-4963

Ivanhoe's Burma Mine Resumes Production, mine valued at zero making money

(Ottawa, Canada) - The Myanmar Times, the pro-military business publication based in Rangoon has reported that the Monywa copper mine run by Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Company Limited (MICCL) has resumed production after a year long hiatus. According to Deutsche Presse, production stopped in April 2008 after a deal with an Australian explosives supply firm expired.

MICCL managing director Glenn Ford in an interview with the Myanmar Times did not elaborate on the reasons for the shutdown, saying "All I can tell you is that the Monywa project, Myanmar's only copper mine, has restarted operations". Ford added "The mine produces copper, which is a strategic metal essential for any infrastructure (development), and (Monywa) is one of the lowest-cost production mines in the world."

Longtime Ivanhoe observer and dedicated humanitarian activist shareholder Eric Snider noted in an email to CFOB “The last production of copper cathode produced at the mine was offered for tender by MICCL in September 2008. No doubt, the rising price of copper on international markets has spurred the company to resume production.”

Mine Valued by Ivanhoe accountants at “zero” again making money

MICCL was created as a 50-50 joint venture between a state owned entity of the Burmese military regime and Vancouver based Ivanhoe Mines headed by notorious Chairman Robert Friedland. In February 2007, Ivanhoe Mines announced that it had “sold” its 50% stake in MICCL operator of Burma's largest mine to an “independent third party trust” in return for a guarantee that when the trust sells the stake Ivanhoe will then be paid. Later that year Ivanhoe, citing a lack of knowledge about what was occurring at MICCL's Monywa copper mine, claimed that it was “prudent to record a $134.3 million write-down” in the value of their 50% holding in the Burmese joint venture thus reducing its value to zero. Ivanhoe continues to own a 50% stake in the joint venture as the trust has been unable to find a buyer for Ivanhoe's Burmese holdings.

How a mine that is officially valued at zero by Ivanhoe's accountants could still continue to produce highly valued copper remains a question that Ivanhoe refuses to explain. “This is creative accounting taken to a whole new level, Ivanhoe claims that the value of their Monywa assets is zero and yet the mine continues to be one of the lowest cost producers of copper in the world, Canadian government regulators must be diligent and investigate this charade” says CFOB  board member Kevin McLeod.

Just days before President Bush left office in January the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added MICCL to the US government's Burma sanctions list. Ivanhoe has so far declined to comment on this major development. “Its abundantly clear that Ivanhoe is shamelessly attempting to skirt US and Canadian sanctions by claiming that MICCL has no value, the Canadian government must not support Ivanhoe's activities in Mongolia, the Congo or any other overseas jurisdiction because of Ivanhoe's outrageous actions in Burma” says CFOB Executive Director Tin Maung Htoo.

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