From a link on the neighbors board...Dr. John Faessel - On The Market
TRIP TO MONGOLIA & CHINA - an incredible eye opener
I`m just back from a near two-week visit to Mongolia and the upper province in China. I was accompanied by a cast of international names from some of the world`s largest investment banks, analysts, geologists, money managers and natural resource experts. In Mongolia we had meetings with the ministers who oversee foreign investment and trade with specific emphasis on mineral resources. I also had a nice chat with both the US Ambassador to Mongolia and the Ambassador from the People`s Republic of China. While we were in China we had meetings with the Secretary of the Communist Party of China, (from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia) and the person (a woman) who directs capital investment in the region and important industry names who direct some of the world`s largest copper, aluminum and manufacturing operations there. These facilities lie in new, huge industrial parks that are staggering in size and disarming in their modernity. The focus point of our trip was the visit to the mammoth Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) mine site in southern Mongolia near the Chinese border. I`ll report on the visit to the mine in a later commentary, but for starters - the ore body is the world`s second-largest and includes some of the richest copper and gold concentrations in history. Mine officials think that once the true scope of the deposit is delineated it will be the world`s largest. At last estimate, the mines present value, which has been authenticated by AMEC* (under the direction of Dr. Harry Parker, who is considered to be the worlds leading geostatistician) is at about $110 billion - (at current metal prices). It`s been 50 years since a comparable size ore body was discovered in Indonesia and is the world`s largest. The Ivanhoe mine is being engineered & overseen by John Macken - President of (IVN) who recently finished building out the Indonesian, Grasberg mine.
(IVN) $8.05 NYSE has a market cap of $2.36 billion and is my - Top Pick Best Idea for 2005.
*AMEC is an international project management and services company, employing around 45,000 people in some 40 countries around the world.