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

U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, chair of the House of Representatives' bipartisan select committee on China, raised concerns on Thursday about mining group Ivanhoe Atlantic and its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In a letter addressed to U.S. State Department Secretary Marco Rubio, Moolenaar said the department has supported companies with “concerning ties” to the CCP. “One such company is Ivanhoe Atlantic (Ivanhoe), a company with well-documented ties to Chinese state-owned enterprises,” the Michigan Republican wrote.

According to the company’s website, Ivanhoe Atlantic’s major shareholder is I-Pulse Inc., a U.S. firm founded and chaired by Robert Friedland. 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.

Moolenaar noted that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has previously placed CITIC’s telecommunications services on a list of entities 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 Mining was added in 2025 to the “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” (UFLPA) entity list for its reported use of forced labor in China.

Linking the two companies, Moolenaar said their 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 its two markets, two resources strategy.”

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

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

Moolenaar said he shares the State Department’s goal of boosting U.S. commercial engagement in Africa while reducing reliance on Chinese-controlled 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,” he wrote. -Shubham Kalia/Reuters