Yet Ivanhoe now says it may shut down the mine unless it can obtain new financing.
"The newsletter is his, he wasn't writing about Ivanhoe every week in the column, " said Kramer.
That technology, he claimed, could potentially help Ivanhoe achieve a market value on a par with Google.
This week, Ivanhoe and Rio shot back a letter saying the agreement was not up for renegotiation.
One other major hurdle: Even if Ivanhoe strikes it big, how will it get the ore to market?
Ivanhoe Energy, run by former Occidental Petroleum executives, produces oil and gas in places like China and California.
Ivanhoe, the announcement proclaimed, had just successfully completed a test run at a demonstration plant outside Bakersfield, Calif.
Rio made that move on Jan. 24, without informing Ivanhoe, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Ivanhoe Mines inked an agreement with the Burmese government to develop a copper mine and split the profits.
Calandra had used the newsletter to tout Ivanhoe Energy and Ivanhoe Mines, stocks he at one time owned.
In 1958 he got his first major part as Sir Waldo of Ivanhoe in the TV series, Ivanhoe.
His hands are tied because of the company's confidentiality agreement with Ivanhoe Mines.
In 2010, Ivanhoe adopted a shareholder-rights plan that allowed other investors to dilute Rio's stake if it continued to grow.
Why, at Camp Ivanhoe, where Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), resplendent in shorts and long thick socks, oversees his charges.
The Ivanhoe spokesman said the company's future is for all the company's shareholders to decide, not just Rio and Mr. Friedland.
Last year, Rio challenged this clause in arbitration, and Ivanhoe abandoned the plan, clearing the way for Rio to go above 50%.
Between September and the start of 2004 Calandra gave special mention to at least one of the Ivanhoe companies in 10 of his columns.
The other big investor with TPG's real-estate program is Ivanhoe Cambridge, the property investor for Canadian pension manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec.
Ivanhoe says the copper project, which it exited in 2007, brought investment into a developing country and was started before Canada placed sanctions on the regime.
That technology, he claimed, could potentially help Ivanhoe achieve a market value on a par with Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ).
Ivanhoe's early days in Mongolia saw setbacks, including a local protest in which an effigy of Mr. Friedland in a top hat was burnt in the capital Ulaanbaatar.
Ivanhoe, has denied the allegation that he misled his client.
"What we saw last week was not unlike the first flight of the Kitty Hawk, " said Friedland, Ivanhoe's cofounder and deputy chairman, in a conference call the next day.
One other major hurdle: Even if Ivanhoe strikes it big and can pull copper and gold out at a reasonable cost, how will it get the ore to market?
We had the opportunity to tour the Zone with Margaret May, Director of the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Community Center and David Warm, Executive Director of the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC).
They just made 140% on Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) calls.
FORBES: Ben Bernanke Walks The Road To Tokyo In Deflationary Apocalypse
Ivanhoe Cambridge bought the interest from the Blackstone Group.
At the same time he is trying to list Ivanhoe Mines on Nasdaq or the American Stock Exchange, a move that would certainly attract new investors and, perhaps, result in a better price.
The volatile stocks have both more than doubled in the last year, but Ivanhoe Energy has tumbled 57% and Ivanhoe Mines is down 43% since the stocks reached their peak in early November.
Kramer added that he did not think the ownership clouded Calandra's judgment when he wrote his column, which Kramer claimed was not used to tout the Ivanhoe stocks as often as the newsletter.
应用推荐