Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ) has formed a Joint Steering Committee and Joint Working Group with Rio Tinto as a mechanism to facilitate negotiations related to strategic matters amongst stakeholders, the company said on Monday. TRQ has access to and participates in, reviews or oversees key matters related to Oyu Tolgoi, including interactions with the Government of Mongolia related to the Parliamentary Working Group. As it said in a report, the company is actively seeking to identify short and long-term funding options that meet the company’s significant capital requirements to complete the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) Underground development. In addition, OT underground mine development costs are rising and the initial mining date has been delayed while extra funding is required for the Tavan Tolgoi power plant project. According to the report, Turquoise Hill has USD 2.2 billion of available liquidity but the required financing is two times more than that or USD 4.5 billion. Analyst at Seeking Alpha predicts that Rio Tinto may use the opportunity to increase its stake in TRQ. The Board, led by the independent directors and supported by external advisors, thoroughly reviewed both proposals and recommended that shareholders vote against the first proposal and withhold their vote on the second proposal for the reasons outlined in the company’s Management Proxy Circular, filed with securities regulators on March 20, 2020.

Published Date:2020-04-08