Investors support Friedland's bullish plans for SA's Ivanplats

Ivanplats has now announced that it plans to move its Kamoa and Platreef Projects from discovery to production as "a key near-term objective."

Ivanplats has mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland as its biggest individual shareholder. The company's Toronto listing - the biggest this year - indicates once again that sophisticated investors believe Friedland will be successful with Ivanplats. It also underlines the market's confidence that Friedland is capable of listing at a time when few, if any, mining companies of any kind would be able to combat and overcome market conditions.

Friedland has shown the world that he is capable of developing big mines in some of the world's most difficult destinations. He has spent much of the past decade developing Oyu Tolgoi (now Turquoise Hill), a giant copper-gold deposit in Mongolia, first exploited as early as the time of Genghis Khan. According to Forbes, Friedland's net worth was $1.3bn as of September 2012. He continues to hold 10% of Turquoise Hill (worth about $820m), listed in the US and Canada, The New Age reports.

Read the full article on www.thenewage.co.za.