Qatar's sovereign fund buys 4% of Ivanhoe Mines for $500m

Ivanhoe Mines has agreed to a $500m investment from Qatar that will give the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund a 4% stake in the Canadian copper miner founded by billionaire Robert Friedland, as the company works to fund the recovery of its flood-hit Kamoa-Kakula complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Under the deal, Ivanhoe planned to issue 57.5 million common shares to the Qatar Investment Authority through a private placement at C$12 a share. Shares in Ivanhoe traded flat at C$13.19 in Toronto on the day of the announcement — about 9% above the placement price — valuing the company at C$17.8bn.

An endorsement, and a hedge

The investment "is a powerful endorsement of Ivanhoe Mines' vision to be a leading supplier of critical metals that will drive the electrification of the global economy, development of new energy infrastructure, and growth of advanced technologies like large-scale data centres and AI," Friedland said. "QIA's forward-looking vision is fully aligned with our own."

Ivanhoe operates the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex and the Kipushi zinc mine in the DRC, and was preparing to start production that year at its Platreef platinum-group-metals project in South Africa. The company was still working to overcome the flooding at Kamoa after having earlier set output records.

Deepening ties with Asian and Gulf capital

Friedland has long courted investors from outside North America. China's Citic Metal held about a quarter of Ivanhoe as its largest shareholder, and Zijin Mining, China's top gold and copper producer, owned close to 14%. The Qatari investment extended that pattern of sovereign and strategic backing to the Gulf, reflecting how central Ivanhoe's African copper and zinc assets had become to sovereign funds seeking exposure to the energy transition. For Ivanhoe, the fresh capital provided a cushion as it absorbed the rising costs of Kamoa-Kakula's dewatering programme, and set the stage for further talks with sovereign funds that the company confirmed were ongoing in the weeks that followed.

Sources

• Mining.com: Friedland sells 4% of Ivanhoe to Qatar for $500M, 17 Sept 2025

Photo: A sample of raw copper ore of the kind mined in the Central African copperbelt. S. Rae from Scotland, UK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.