COAL EXPLORATION – Thick Seam in Mongolia

MONGOLIA - IVANHOE MINES, with its corporate office in Vancouver, reports tracing an unusually thick seam of high-quality coal about 40 km north of the Mongolia-China border. This is the same seam that is being mined by an independent Mongolian-Chinese joint venture at the Nariin Sukhait mine. The seam is part of a coal basin traced 120 km east and west of the mine on land controlled by Ivanhoe.

All five of Ivanhoe's initial drill holes intercepted a single thick seam of low-ash, high-rank, bituminous coal extending from surface to depths ranging between 120 and 150 metres. This initial drilling indicated a continuous coal seam ranging in thickness from 32 to 90 metres, with an average true thickness of approximately 60 metres. The full extent of the seam's depth remains to be determined. Four other seams in the coal measure sequence also appear to be low-ash, high-rank bituminous coal, and will be evaluated and drilled by Ivanhoe in future phases of the overall program. The company plans to initiate a more extensive drilling program aimed at delineating one or more significant coal deposits suitable for safe and low-cost open pit mining.

Ivanhoe's website (www.Ivanhoe-Mines.com) is available in English and Mongolian.