Jul. 2 at 11:13 AM
$IE - Ivanhoe Electric
Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe Electric is building what might become the most important new copper mine in America.
Santa Cruz, Arizona: 99.99% pure copper cathode via heap leach. No smelter needed. PFS shows
$1.32/lb C1 cash costs — first quartile globally.
$1.4B NPV at
$4.25/lb copper. 23-year mine life. First production targeted H2 2028.
The kicker: U.S. EXIM Bank issued a Letter of Interest for
$825M in project financing. This is domestic supply chain independence with federal backing.
Beyond Santa Cruz, IE's Typhoon geophysical tech + AI-driven exploration is deployed across Utah, Montana, Saudi Arabia, and Chile.
The parallel here is interesting. While IE is deep into development with federal financing nred is taking the policy-first approach — bringing Kristi Noem onto its advisory board to navigate the same federal landscape IE has already cracked. Different stages, same thesis: U.S. copper = national security.
