Global miner Rio Tinto will raise its stake in Ivanhoe Mines to 46.5 percent from 42 percent after exercising outstanding warrants, a move that will allow it to name an extra board member. Ivanhoe is developing the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold-silver project in Mongolia with Rio. The project is 66 percent-owned by Ivanhoe, with the remainder owned by the Mongolian government. See: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page504?oid=129830&sn=Detail&pid=92730
Rio’s increased stake comes as news that assets belonging to Ivanhoe Mines may have been transferred to a Chinese weapons manufacturer following its takeover last year of a copper mine in northern Burma, campaigners say. If validated, the move could be in violation of both US and Canadian sanctions on Burma, said Tin Maung Htoo, executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB). The group has closely monitored the takeover of the Monywa copper mine last year by Norinco, one of China’s biggest arms companies that is known to have supplied heavy weaponry to the Burmese army. See: http://www.dvb.no/news/canadian-assets-‘sold-to-china-weapons-firm’/16282