BILLIONAIRE mining spruiker Robert Friedland usually makes a rapid escape from the outback town of Kalgoorlie as soon as he has delivered his annual 30-minute presentation on the final afternoon of the Diggers & Dealers conference.
But this time the big-talking Canadian hung around a lot longer than usual so that he could put in an appearance at the boozy gala dinner, where he was presented with the annual dealmaker award for his "entrepreneurial skills".

Mr Friedland, the brash chief executive of Ivanhoe Mines, didn't disappoint several hundred Diggers delegates who had become accustomed to his rapid-fire presentations and bullish claims.

And he didn't mind handing out a few opinions on Australian politics, referring to Julia Gillard as "the redhead" whom he found "terrifying".

"Politicians are people who bribe you with your own money," he said.

Mr Friedland told the conference yesterday that the massive $6 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia's Gobi Desert would start producing ahead of schedule and under budget.


It will produce more than 1.2 million tonnes of copper and 650,000 ounces of gold each year, averaged over its first 10 years.The project, being built by Ivanhoe and its major shareholder Rio Tinto, is 33 per cent complete and on track to be producing gold, copper and silver by the first half of 2013.

The mine, Mr Friedland boasted, had a potential life of more than 100 years. Meanwhile, Mongolia was set to become the world's fastest-growing economy with spectacular GDP growth of 35 per cent every year.

Mr Friedland said that 14,200 people were working on construction of the mine, in the Gobi Desert, about 80km north of the Chinese border.

To give an idea of the scale of the development, it easily overshadows the largest construction project in the US, the rebuilding of the World Trade Centre, on which 2300 people are working.

"This year, we are spending about $US75 per second in the development of the mine," he said, adding that this equated to about $US9 million ($8.3m) a day.

Mr Friedland reminded Australian miners, brokers and financiers that they were living in the lucky country, especially compared with the "very, very sick puppy" that was the US.

He said Asia would remain the epicentre of copper demand in the decades ahead.

Mr Friedland said Rio Tinto had agreed to provide $US1.8bn in interim financing for Oyu Tolgoi and financing had also been secured from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

But there was no mention of the simmering dispute with Rio Tinto, which controls a 46 per cent stake in Ivanhoe and believes it has the right to further increase its holding.

Ivanhoe has attempted to prevent Rio from increasing that stake via a shareholder rights plan and the two parties have headed to arbitration. Mr Friedland took a few questions from the floor but as in previous years refused to speak to the media, disappearing through a rear exit in the blink of an eye.