Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (Ivanhoe Electric) operates as a United States domiciled minerals exploration company with a focus on developing mines from mineral deposits principally located in the United States.
The company seeks to support American supply chain independence by finding and delivering the critical metals necessary for the electrification of the economy, with a focus on copper.
The United States Mineral Projects
The company’s sole material mineral project is the Santa Cruz Project in...
Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (Ivanhoe Electric) operates as a United States domiciled minerals exploration company with a focus on developing mines from mineral deposits principally located in the United States.
The company seeks to support American supply chain independence by finding and delivering the critical metals necessary for the electrification of the economy, with a focus on copper.
The United States Mineral Projects
The company’s sole material mineral project is the Santa Cruz Project in Arizona.
Santa Cruz Project
The Santa Cruz Project is a copper exploration project situated in a prolific mining region that hosts some of the largest copper mines in the United States. The project encompasses 5,975 acres on private land and includes associated water rights. The project location provides excellent infrastructure, including access to rail, interstate highways, and electric transmission lines.
The company is advancing environmental, technical, trade-off, and economic studies in preparation for a Preliminary Feasibility Study for a copper mining operation, incorporating leading technologies to improve efficiencies and costs. The company is designing a technologically advanced mine that is expected to result in low carbon dioxide emissions per pound of copper produced and be a leading example of responsibly produced domestic copper.
The company’s other mineral projects in the United States include the Tintic Project, located in Utah, and the Hog Heaven Copper-Silver-Gold Project, located in Montana. The company also holds a portfolio of exploration projects in the western United States, including projects in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Montana.
Ma’aden Ivanhoe Electric Exploration and Development Limited Company
In 2023, the company established an exploration joint venture with the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (‘Ma’aden’) (‘Joint Venture’). The Joint Venture is owned 50/50 by Ivanhoe Electric and Ma’aden and has an initial term of five years, which may be extended up to 10 years upon mutual agreement of the parties. The Joint Venture operates through a limited liability company established under Saudi Arabian law (‘Saudi JVCo’). Ma’aden has made available approximately 48,500 km² of land under an exploration license (or license application) within Saudi Arabia for exploration by the Joint Venture. The license will remain exclusive to the Joint Venture in Saudi Arabia and effective during the term of the Joint Venture. Saudi JVCo has purchased three new generation Typhoon units from the company’s former parent, I-Pulse, all of which have now been delivered to the Joint Venture and are active in Saudi Arabia. The Joint Venture has also entered into a services agreement with Computational Geosciences Inc. (‘CGI’), the company’s 94.3% owned subsidiary, pursuant to which CGI is responsible for the supply of the services for the analysis of data and processing of the full spectrum of geophysical datasets produced by the Typhoon systems. The Joint Venture commenced exploration activities in November 2023 and announced its first mineral discovery in January 2025.
Exploration Alliance with BHP Mineral Resources
In 2024, the company established an exploration alliance (‘Exploration Alliance’) with BHP Mineral Resources Inc. (‘BHP’), a subsidiary of BHP Group Limited, to search for critical minerals in the United States. The Exploration Alliance Agreement sets out the framework for the company (acting through a wholly owned subsidiary) and BHP to explore mutually agreed ‘Areas of Interest’ or AOIs in the United States to identify projects within those AOIs that may become 50/50 owned joint ventures. The initial AOIs are in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Other International Mineral Projects
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s other mineral projects outside of the United States include the Alacran Project in Colombia (owned through its 62.5% interest in publicly traded company Cordoba Minerals Corp.), the Ivory Coast Project (owned through the company’s interest in publicly traded company Sama Resources Inc. (‘Sama’), and the company’s 60% interest in a joint venture entity that directly owns the mineral titles of the project) in Ivory Coast, and the wholly owned Pinaya Project in Peru.
The Alacran Project (also known as the San Matias Project) is owned by the company’s publicly traded subsidiary, Cordoba Minerals Corp. (‘Cordoba’). As of December 31, 2024, the company owned 62.5% of Cordoba’s issued and outstanding shares. The Alacran Project, which is owned 50% by Cordoba and 50% by JCHX Mining Management Co., Ltd. (‘JCHX’), is being developed jointly between the owners.
Alacran is located in the Municipality of Puerto Libertador, Department of Córdoba, Colombia, and is approximately 200 km north of the city of Medellín. The Alacran Project hosts the El Alacrán, Costa Azul, Montiel East, and Montiel West deposits across various mining titles.
The Ivory Coast Nickel-Copper Project in Ivory Coast is focused on the Samapleu-Grata deposits and is operated through a joint venture, the Samapleu Nickel Corporation (‘SNC’), with Sama. As of December 31, 2024, the company directly owned 60% of the joint venture entity SNC. The Ivory Coast Nickel-Copper Project has potential for a conventional open pit mining operation supporting 86.5 million tonnes of modelled mill feed, together with 1.62 million tonnes of direct shipped laterite material entirely from the Grata, Main, and Extension deposits, and the Sipilou Sud Laterite deposit.
The Pinaya Gold-Copper Project, owned by the company’s 100%-owned subsidiary Kaizen, covers approximately 101 km² of granted title, plus an additional 28 km² under application, and includes more than 10 km of underexplored strike length in southeastern Peru. The project is an intermediate stage exploration project and includes a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimate contained in a NI 43-101 Technical Report titled Pinaya Gold-Copper Project, Caylloma and Lampa Provinces, Peru, NI 43-101 Technical Report, with an effective date of April 26, 2016.
Typhoon and Computational Geosciences
In addition to the company’s portfolio of mineral projects, the company owns, through a wholly owned subsidiary, patents to a proprietary geophysical mineral exploration technology known as Typhoon. The company also owns a 94.3% controlling interest in a data inversion business, CGI.
The Typhoon technology allows the company to cost-effectively and efficiently generate geophysical images of large-scale mineral deposits to depths of one and a half kilometers or more. CGI software technology consists of sophisticated codes to process geophysical data and build three-dimensional (‘3D’) subsurface images that could indicate the presence of various sulfide metals and minerals.
VRB Energy
The company also has interests in grid-scale energy storage systems utilizing vanadium redox flow technology. The company owns a 90.0% interest in VRB Energy Inc. (‘VRB Energy’), which itself owns 100% of VRB USA Inc. (‘VRB USA’), an Arizona-based business focused on the development and manufacture of grid-scale energy storage systems utilizing vanadium redox flow batteries for integration with renewable power sources. VRB Energy also has a 49% interest in VRB Energy System (Beijing) Co., Ltd., a joint venture in China (‘VRB China Joint Venture’) with a subsidiary of privately held Shanxi Red Sun Co., Ltd., which owns 51% of the VRB China Joint Venture. The VRB China Joint Venture manufactures, develops, and sells vanadium redox flow batteries for Asian, African, and Middle Eastern markets.
Mineral Projects
The company’s portfolio of highly prospective mineral projects, predominantly focused on copper and other metals needed for the clean energy transition, has been assembled by Robert Friedland and his team over the past decade.
The Santa Cruz, Tintic, and Hog Heaven Projects are situated in the high-quality copper producing jurisdictions of Arizona, Utah, and Montana, respectively.
The United States
Santa Cruz Project, Arizona, USA (the ‘Santa Cruz Project’)
The company’s exploration stage Santa Cruz Project is located in Pinal County, Arizona. The Santa Cruz Project encompasses approximately 75.66 km² of land.
The Santa Cruz Project covers 75.66 km², including 25.79 km² of private land, 2.6 km² of Stockraising Homestead Act (‘SRHA’) lands, 238 unpatented claims covering 19.32 km² of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (‘BLM’) land, and 16 mineral exploration permits with the Arizona State Land Department (‘ASLD’) covering 27.95 km².
In 2024, Ivanhoe Electric’s wholly owned subsidiary, Mesa Cobre, executed an agreement with Central Arizona Resources (‘CAR’) for the right to acquire 100% of CAR’s option over DRH Energy, Inc. (‘DRHE’) mineral title, 39 federal unpatented mining lode claims, and 3 surface parcels. This option was exercised in August 2024, and the company now owns, through its wholly owned subsidiary Mesa Cobre, all mineral title over the project area.
In May 2023, the company acquired 5,975 acres of surface title from Legend Property Group (now known as Wolff-Harvard Ventures).
In February 2022, Ivanhoe Electric acquired the surface title to 20 acres in the southeast area of the Santa Cruz Project known as Skull Valley. In May 2022, the company acquired the surface title to 100.33 acres in the northeast area of the Project known as CG100.
The mineral rights to Skull Valley were acquired in February 2022 along with the surface title. The mineral rights to CG100 were acquired in May 2022 along with the surface title.
In November 2023, Ivanhoe Electric acquired 16 mineral exploration permits from ASLD, adding an additional 27.95 km² of mineral control to the project.
Other Properties
The company has been active with several of its other mineral projects in the United States, including the Tintic Project, located in Utah, and the Hog Heaven Project, located in Montana. The company also holds a portfolio of exploration projects in the western United States, including projects in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Montana.
Tintic Project, Utah, USA (the ‘Tintic Project’)
The Tintic Project is located near the City of Eureka. The exploration area covers approximately 81.97 km² of private patented claims, unpatented claims, and state leases consolidated by Ivanhoe Electric into a cohesive package of interests.
Ivanhoe Electric holds various types of claims and leases through its wholly owned subsidiary Tintic Copper & Gold Inc. (TCG) or other subsidiaries. The company’s holdings at the Tintic Project consist of: 486 Patented claims comprising 19.62 km²; 152 Patented claims and 1 fee parcel (subject to various lease or lease and option agreements) comprising 9.11 km²; 474 Unpatented mining lode claims comprising over 38.79 km²; 14.45 km² of SITLA (Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Association) mineral leases, in three agreements; and 6 Hardrock Prospecting Permit (‘HRPP’) applications on Bankhead-Jones lands in the Tintic Valley, comprising 61 km².
In October 2017, Ivanhoe Electric (through its predecessor High Power Exploration Inc. (‘HPX’) at the time) signed a purchase and sale agreement with Mr. Spenst M. Hansen (‘Hansen’) to acquire 100% of his patented claims and a portion of his unpatented claims. The last payment installment was made on April 19, 2022, making Ivanhoe Electric the current owner. In August 2018, Ivanhoe Electric signed a further purchase and sale agreement with Hansen to acquire the patented claims on the Mammoth, North Star, and Gemini properties.
Hog Heaven Project
The Hog Heaven Project in Montana is located on private land approximately 80 km south-southwest of the town of Kalispell, Montana. It is in the historical Hog Heaven District, which consists of several high-sulfidation epithermal mineral deposits and prospects, as well as several historical mines, including the Flathead Mine.
Brixton Metals Corporation (‘Brixton’) owns the Hog Heaven Project through its subsidiary Brixton USA, covering an area of 24.32 km² through the following interests: 2.59 km² of deeded fee simple land both surface and minerals, and 14.06 km² of fee simple mineral rights held by Brixton USA. The balance, 7.67 km², is held via lease of three parcels owned by the Chester Company Ltd.
In 2024, Ivanhoe Electric leased a further 4,925 acres of private surface and mineral rights at the Hog Heaven Project from a private owner, advancing additional consolidation of the district and providing additional access to areas prospective for porphyry systems.
Exploration efforts are focused on identifying the extensions of shallow mineralization that characterized historical production near the Flathead Mine and exploring for porphyry systems in the Battle Butte Area associated with a deep Typhoon-generated anomaly.
BHP- Ivanhoe Electric Exploration Alliance (the ‘BHP Alliance’)
On May 7, 2024, the company entered into an Exploration Alliance Agreement with BHP Mineral Resources Inc. (‘BHP’) for the exploration of mutually agreed ‘Areas of Interest’ in the United States to identify copper and other critical metal exploration opportunities within those Areas of Interest that may become 50/50 owned joint ventures. The initial Areas of Interest are in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.
The Exploration Alliance Agreement contemplates two stages – a Project Generation Phase and a Joint Venture Phase. A subsidiary of Ivanhoe Electric will be the operator during the Project Generation Phase, and the operator of a project in the Joint Venture Phase will be mutually agreed upon in the future.
International
Saudi Arabian Joint Venture
Ivanhoe Electric and Ma’aden established a Saudi Arabian exploration Joint Venture (the ‘Joint Venture’) through the limited liability company, Saudi JVCo, to unlock the significant mineral potential in Saudi Arabia. The Joint Venture has exclusive access to explore approximately 48,500 km² of underexplored land on the Arabian Shield that Ma’aden has made available to the Saudi JVCo.
The Arabian Shield is considered highly prospective for both VMS and epithermal styles of mineralization. A notable VMS deposit in the Arabian Shield is the Jabal Sayid copper mine operated as a joint venture between Barrick Gold Corporation and Ma’aden that produced 68,492 tonnes of copper in 2022. Ma’aden’s Mahd Ad Dhahab ‘Cradle of Gold’ gold mine is an example of an epithermal deposit on the shield that has been mined since pre-Islamic times.
The Al Amar Belt is considered highly prospective for VMS and epithermal deposit types, with historical work identifying zinc, copper, lead, silver, and gold mineralization. Twenty-four exploration licenses that make up the Al Amar Belt cover 1,934 km². The Joint Venture’s first Typhoon survey covered 76 square kilometers near Ma’aden’s Al Amar gold-copper-zinc mine, which was completed in March 2024. Subsequent Typhoon surveys have covered an additional 162 square kilometers of the Joint Venture exploration license areas. Typhoon surveys on the Joint Venture exploration license areas had covered 238 square kilometers as of January 13, 2025, identifying several targets for drilling and other technical work programs, such as mapping and sampling. The Joint Venture is currently operating three Typhoon systems in Saudi Arabia, one in the Al Amar belt and two in the Wadi Bidah belt.
On January 13, 2025, the company announced initial drill results from the Joint Venture. The Joint Venture’s initial drill program focused on the Umm Ad Dabah prospect, near Ma’aden’s existing Al Amar gold-copper-zinc mine.
Ivory Coast Nickel-Copper Project, Ivory Coast (the ‘Ivory Coast Project’)
The Ivory Coast Project is located approximately 650 road km northwest of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. As of December 31, 2024, the company’s 69.1% interest in the Ivory Coast Project was held through its 22.7% equity interest in Sama and its 60% interest in the SNC joint venture. In 2024, the company completed its 60% earn-in into SNC, and as of December 31, 2024, the company directly owned 60% of the joint venture entity SNC.
The Ivory Coast Project consists of three exploration permits owned by SNC, which is the joint venture vehicle in which the company is partnering with Sama to advance the Ivory Coast Project, which cover a total of 517 km², as well as two additional exploration permits held in a joint venture with Société pour le Développement Minier de la Côte d’Ivoire, a parastatal organization established by the Ivory Coast, which together cover 318 km².
In March 2018, the company entered into a binding term sheet for an earn-in and joint venture agreement with Sama, which was subsequently formalized in March 2021 (the ‘Sama Earn-In and JV Agreement’).
Alacran Copper-Gold Project, Colombia (the ‘Alacran Project’)
On July 31, 2017, the company (then HPX) entered into an investment agreement with Cordoba. Under that agreement, Cordoba granted the company a right to nominate directors to its board of directors based on its pro rata interest in Cordoba. The investment agreement provides for the company’s nominees to the Cordoba board to be reduced to less than a majority of the directors if its ownership interest in Cordoba is diluted to below 50%, with further proportional reductions thereafter. Assuming the board of Cordoba is to consist of seven directors and the company holds a 50% or greater interest in Cordoba, the company is entitled to nominate four, with at least one of such nominees being independent. The company owned 62.5% of Cordoba as of December 31, 2024, and has nominated three directors currently serving on the Cordoba board: Quentin Markin, Jordan Neeser, and Terry Krepiakevich.
The company filed the EIA application with the relevant Colombian Government authority on December 11, 2023, and was issued the official filing number on December 12, 2023.
Pinaya Copper-Gold Project, Peru (the ‘Pinaya Project’)
The Pinaya Project is 100% owned by Ivanhoe Electric as of February 6, 2024, through Ivanhoe Electric’s subsidiary Kaizen. Kaizen filed an NI 43-101 technical report for the Pinaya Project, titled ‘Pinaya Gold-Copper Project Technical Report,’ which was prepared jointly by Brian Cole, P.Geo, and GeoSim Services Inc., with an effective date of April 26, 2016 (‘Pinaya Technical Report’).
Typhoon
The company owns, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, patents to a proprietary exploration technology known as Typhoon. When the company references ‘the company’s’ Typhoon technology, it means the technology that is covered by patents owned by its wholly-owned subsidiary Geo27, Inc. (‘Geo27’). The company is also the exclusive worldwide licensee of certain technology in the field of geological survey for mineral exploration from I-Pulse Inc. (‘I-Pulse’). I-Pulse is the parent of its predecessor company, HPX.
Typhoon is the brand name for the company’s proprietary electrical geophysical surveying transmitter, which can detect the presence of sulfide minerals containing copper, nickel, gold, and silver, as well as water and oil (although the company does not hold any rights to water and oil exploration). The technology was developed by I-Pulse to unlock exploration in areas where potential deposits are hidden by cover, where target depths exceed the range of conventional geophysical surveying systems, or where the scale and topography of an exploration target area prevent efficient and cost-effective conventional work. Typhoon allows the company to potentially discover deposits otherwise thought to be undetectable through conventional survey methods and technology.
The company has four 1st Generation Typhoon units and six 2nd Generation Typhoon units, which allow the company to evaluate multiple prospects at any given time. Three of the 2nd Generation units are owned by the Saudi JVCo and used under license. One 2nd Generation unit is dedicated to the Exploration Alliance with BHP.
The data processing and artificial intelligence software developed by the company’s subsidiary CGI complements its Typhoon technology and represents the only software product that can efficiently process the full spectrum of geophysical data produced by Typhoon.
Computational Geosciences
CGI is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 2010 in order to capitalize on advanced software technology developed at the University of British Columbia that was designed to improve mineral exploration. The technology has undergone significant improvements over the years and extended its market reach into the oil & gas sector, as well as water exploration activities.
CGI’s technology consists of sophisticated software codes and artificial intelligence tools (‘AI’). The software codes are used to process geophysical data (including that generated by Typhoon) in order to build accurate 3D subsurface images that indicate the presence of various metals and minerals, as well as water and oil.
CGI provides fee-for-service and software licensing agreements to customers in the area of critical minerals, energy, and water exploration. CGI applies its geophysical data inversion codes on geophysical data (including that of Typhoon) collected by third-party data acquirers, as well as other sources, such as public or private libraries, in order to construct and refine 3D subsurface images.
CGI applies its services to not only mineral projects but also to the global energy industry and in the search for underground water resources. In the energy sector, CGI has independently developed and collaborated to deploy a real-time 3D inversion service for resistivity logging-while-drilling (‘LWD’) data, significantly optimizing well placement and well completion designs to maximize reservoir productivity. CGI is also able to monitor fluid substitution within reservoirs, whether for enhanced oil recovery or carbon capture and storage. CGI has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with a major oilfield service provider for the worldwide license of the LWD code.
CGI’s intention is to grow its client base in the mining sector for existing geophysical inversion and AI-based services in order to increase its revenue from third-party sources. CGI is currently developing two new geophysical modeling products and has identified another solution for the AI-based platform digitization application. CGI is also building large geoscience databases from vast amounts of publicly available data in various countries and regions of the world in order to use these datasets to map minerals, water, geothermal, and other targets. CGI competes with geophysical data processors, airborne and ground surveyors, offshore surveyors, and AI service providers. These include companies, such as TechnoImaging, LLC, Geotech Ltd., KoBold Metals, and Quantec Geoscience.
VRB Energy - Vanadium Redox Flow Technology
In October 2024, VRB Energy Inc. (‘VRB Energy’), a 90% owned subsidiary of Ivanhoe Electric, entered into definitive agreements providing for the creation of a 49%/51% joint venture (‘VRB Transaction’) between VRB Energy and China Energy Storage Industry Co., Ltd. (‘Red Sun’), a subsidiary of privately held Shanxi Red Sun Co., Ltd.
A cooperation agreement provides for certain allocations of business opportunities, supply arrangements, technical assistance, and intellectual property arrangements as between the businesses of the VRB China Joint Venture and VRB Energy USA, Inc.
VRB Energy also owns 100% of VRB Energy USA, Inc. (‘VRB USA’), an Arizona-based business focused on the development and manufacture of advanced grid-scale energy storage systems utilizing vanadium redox flow batteries for integration with renewable power sources.
The commercial platform of both VRB China Joint Venture and VRB USA is the Third Generation Vanadium Redox Battery Energy Storage System (‘Gen3 VRB-ESS’). The Gen3 VRB-ESS is a commercially validated system that presents a superior solution for grid-scale utility storage compared to existing lithium-ion batteries.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development costs were $2.8 million in 2024.
History
Ivanhoe Electric Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 2020.
