Ivanhoe (NYSE:IVN) Soars as They Battle Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) Over Oyu Tolgoi

Shares of Ivanhoe (NYSE:IVN) soared 14 percent Tuesday as they battled Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) over their stake in the gigantic Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia.

The battle between Ivanhoe and Rio began when they notified Rio they were going to exercise their right to issue more shares to investors besides Rio Tinto. This would allow Ivanhoe to sell over 5 percent of its common shares to another mining company.

Rio is fighting this because they say it breaches its private placement agreement, which Rio claims gives them the right to increase their stake in Oyu Tolgoi to 46 percent.

This would obviously change if Ivanhoe sold over 5 percent of common shares, as it would cause them to lose control of the project and the company if a bloc was created which owned over 50 percent of the shares.

Oyu Tolgoi is one of the most significant mines in the world, estimated to be among the top three, and the largest not being mined at this time.

Ivanhoe is doing this to raise more money, and said they will continue to seek other financial options going forward to bring the copper-gold mine online by 2013.

There have been rumors for some time that other mining companies have been wanting to buy a stake in Ivanhoe since they have controlled Oyu Tolgoi. One name in particular that has been coming up a lot lately is China-based Chinalco.