Reuter-Indochinasays Myanmar copper

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Subject: Reuter-Indochinasays Myanmar copper mine low cost

Tuesday June 22, 3:53 am Eastern Time
Indochinasays Myanmar copper mine low cost
SYDNEY, June 22 (Reuters) - Myanmar's Monywa copper project was producing
London Metal Exchange grade copper cathode at an annualised rate of 55
million pounds for an average cash cost of US$0.25 a pound, Indochina
Goldfields Ltd (Toronto:ING.TO - news) chairman Robert Friedland said on
Tuesday.

``Daily copper production continues to exceed the annualised design rate of
25,000 tonnes (55 million pounds),'' Friedland said in a statement.

In the first the quarter, the mine produced 6,181 tonnes (13.6 million
pounds) of LME Grade A cathode copper at a total mine gate cash cost of
around $0.25 per pound, he said.

Copper fetches about $0.66 a pound on world spot markets.
    Similar costs are expected in the current quarter, he added.
    The cost structure at Monywa would make it one of the lowest cost copper
mining projects globally, according to analysts.
Indochina has 50 percent of the mine with the rest held by the Myanmar
government's Mining Enterprise No. One.

Friedland said the venture has developed a planned sequence of expansions at
the Monywa project which could generate at least an extra 100,000 tonnes of
copper a year.

Following shareholder approval and pending final regulatory approval,
Indochina is changing its name to Ivanhoe Mines Ltd to better reflect an
interest in mining on a global scale, he noted.

The company expects its shares will start trading under the new symbol IVN
within two weeks.

Indochina was established after the C$4.3 billion sale of the Voisey's Bay
nickel deposit in Canada in 1996 by Diamond Field Resources, a firm headed
by Friedland.