Joint Response From Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto Delivered to Mongolian Government and Members of the National Security Council

Late last week Ivanhoe Mines

and Rio Tinto received a letter from a representative of the Mongolian Cabinet inviting the companies to discuss potential changes to the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement. The changes related to the conditions under which the Mongolian Government may negotiate with Ivanhoe Mines to acquire, on mutually agreed terms, an additional 16% interest in the project and the application of a sliding-scale royalty to the project. In response to this letter, Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto

have formally advised the Mongolian government that the companies are not prepared to renegotiate the investment agreement. In addition, the companies also have written to the individual members of Mongolia's peak political authority, the National Security Council, requesting its assistance to ensure the government's full and immediate support for the investment agreement. The National Security Council of Mongolia consists of the President, the Speaker of the Parliament and the Prime Minister. Ivanhoe Mines expects that the parties will continue to honour and implement the terms of the agreement as previously negotiated and has asked the government to affirm its full support for the agreement. The comprehensive, long-term investment agreement, which took full legal effect 18 months ago, was signed by senior representatives of the Mongolian government, Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto in October 2009 and may be amended only by mutual, written consent of all three parties. Ivanhoe Mines, which used private capital to discover the chain of deposits at Oyu Tolgoi, presently holds the majority 66% interest in the project. Rio Tinto, which owns 49% of Ivanhoe Mines, is managing construction of the Oyu Tolgoi mining complex.