US lawmaker raises concerns about miner Ivanhoe Atlantic’s ties with China

By Shubham Kalia and Anusha Shah

Dec 9 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmaker John Moolenaar, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ bipartisan select committee focused on China, on Tuesday raised concerns about mining group Ivanhoe Atlantic’s alleged ties with the Chinese Communist Party.

“I am writing to bring to your attention information about companies with concerning ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that the State Department has supported. One such company is Ivanhoe Atlantic, a company with well-documented ties to Chinese state-owned enterprises,” Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, wrote in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Ivanhoe Atlantic’s major shareholder is I-Pulse Inc, a U.S. company founded and chaired by Robert Friedland, according to the company’s website. Friedland is also the founder and executive co-chair of Toronto-listed Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines.

Nearly 33% of Ivanhoe Mines is owned by units of Chinese companies CITIC Group and Zijin Mining, according to LSEG data.

Ivanhoe Atlantic said in a statement to Reuters that the company and Ivanhoe Mines are completely separate entities.

“Referencing Ivanhoe Mines shareholders …and then falsely implying control or influence over Ivanhoe Atlantic Inc is grossly incorrect and misleading,” the statement said.

Ivanhoe Mines did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

Moolenaar, who described Ivanhoe Mines and Ivanhoe Atlantic as sister companies, said the stakes in Ivanhoe Mines “exemplify how the Chinese Communist Party secures critical mineral supply chains through indirect, minority-share investments in foreign mining firms as part of two markets, two resources strategy.”

Ivanhoe Atlantic said referencing it as a sister company to Ivanhoe Mines is inaccurate.

In the letter, Moolenaar pointed Rubio to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission placing CITIC’s telecommunication services on the list for posing “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.” 

He added that Zijin was added in 2025 to the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” (UFLPA) entity list due to the use of forced labor in China.

In July, the U.S. Embassy in Liberia supported the signing of an estimated $1.8 billion agreement between Ivanhoe Atlantic and the Western African nation to create a rail corridor connecting Guinea and Liberia.

“I share the State Department’s commitment to expanding U.S. commercial engagement in Africa and reducing our reliance on Chinese-controlled critical mineral supply chains. I am ready to work with the State Department to ensure that our commercial diplomacy is free from entanglements with the CCP,” Moolenaar wrote.

Ivanhoe Atlantic said its iron ore project in Guinea is to help counter China’s tightening grip over critical minerals in the Simandou region, and production from the site is reserved exclusively for U.S. and allied supply chains.

“None will go to China, and as an American company committed to U.S. national security, we will not export through China’s Trans-Guinean Railway,” its CEO Bronwyn Barnes said in the statement.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Mexico City and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry, Miyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast.)