Dealmaker Award: Ivanhoe Capital Corporation

The Dealmaker Award is traditionally presented to companies that have been able to unlock value of transactions through corporate takeovers, mergers or other transactions.

This year Diggers & Dealers opted to recognise the entrepreneurial skills on show by Ivanhoe as it develops the Oyu Tolgio copper and Ovoot Tolgoi coal projects in Mongolia while unlocking value in other projects such as the Merlin molybdenum project in Western Australia.

Led by the enigmatic mining industry identify Robert Friedland, Ivanhoe invited Major Rio Tinto to take management control of the Oyu Tolgio project.

Ivanhoe was able to persuade Rio to take equity in the company rather than direct project equity.

This allowed its shareholders to participate fully in the development of the project rather than be diluted out of the main game.