Ulaanbaatar, 17 December, 2015 – LehmanLaw Mongolia is pleased to announce its participation as Mongolian counsel for a group of international Lenders including the multilateral agencies European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), the export credit agencies Export Development Canada (EDC), Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) and US EXIM, and a syndicate of commercial banks including BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered Bank in connection with the US$4.4 billion financing for the Oyu Tolgoi Project. Working closely with leading international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LehmanLaw Mongolia and its Attorneys are proud of their contribution to finalizing the largest emerging market mining project financing transaction to date, the largest Central Asian project financing to date and the largest project in Mongolian history. Key agreements were signed amongst the parties in Mongolia on 15th December, 2015, concluding a signing process for the principal financing documents coordinated across multiple jurisdictions and time zones.

The deal was coordinated from the firm’s office in Ulaanbaatar and guided by Senior Associate Amarjargal Lkhagvaa and Foreign Legal Counsel Jacob Blacklock. The legal team also included Junior Associates Gerel Enebish and Amarmurun Amartuvshin.

Oyu Tolgoi is located in the South Gobi region of Mongolia and is the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold project. The deal is notable in reaching financial close at a time of low commodity prices, demonstrating that well-structured deals can attract large-scale funding even in the face of current market conditions.

In October 2009, Oyu Tolgoi (then, Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia) and its majority shareholder, Turquoise Hill Resources (then, Ivanhoe), signed an investment agreement with the Government of Mongolia, itself an indirect significant shareholder in Oyu Tolgoi, for the construction and operation of the Oyu Tolgoi mining complex. Global miner Rio Tinto is the majority shareholder in Turquoise Hill Resources.