Ivanhoe Mines Board of Directors Appoints New Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer

Ivanhoe Mines IVN announced Tuesday that the company's Board of Directors has appointed Kay Priestly as Chief Executive Officer and Chris Bateman as Chief Financial Officer. The management changes were contemplated by the memorandum of agreement signed with majority shareholder Rio Tinto on April 18, 2012. The agreement included a comprehensive financing package, which is intended to cover Ivanhoe's total funding needs to complete the development of the Oyu Tolgoi project. Interim Chairman Michael Gordon said, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to congratulate Kay and Chris on their appointments as CEO and CFO, respectively. This is an important point in Ivanhoe's history as Oyu Tolgoi prepares for its planned start-up later this year, transitioning from an exploration project to a world-class, tier one, copper-gold mine and one of Mongolia's largest mining operations." Ms. Priestly previously was a senior executive at Rio Tinto and has served as a Director of Ivanhoe Mines since February 2011. Most recently, she served as Chief Financial Officer of Rio Tinto's global Copper product group. Ms. Priestly joined Rio Tinto in 2006 as Chief Financial Officer at Rio Tinto's Kennecott Utah Copper operations. Ms. Priestly also spent more than 24 years with global professional services firm Arthur Andersen, where she provided tax and consulting services to global companies in the energy and mining sectors and was a member of Andersen's global executive team. She also is a Non-Executive Director of Stone Energy Corporation. Mr. Bateman previously was a senior executive of Rio Tinto and served as Chief Financial & Business Development Officer of the company's Diamonds and Minerals product group since 2010. In 2006, Mr. Bateman was appointed Chief Financial Officer at ASX-listed Energy Resources of Australia. Prior to that, he held both commercial and operational roles at Rio Tinto's Kennecott Utah Copper operations. Mr. Bateman also spent eight years at Arthur Andersen's business consulting practice and worked as Financial Planning and Analysis Director at Kaiser Aluminum.