‘Morale is sky high,’ Friedland tells Trump

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) founder and co-executive chairman Robert Friedland relayed the mining industry’s support for how US President Donald Trump has funded projects, quickened permits and now created a $12 billion minerals stockpile.

“Mr. President, thank you so much for what you’ve achieved,” Friedland said in an Oval Office ceremony on Monday featuring cabinet secretaries and other industry leaders such as General Motors CEO Mary Barra. “I’m telling you, on behalf of every miner I know, they’re elated.”

Friedland noted how the array of cameras facing the assembled were made of mined components, cell phones, too. He thanked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the US Export-Import bank for funding projects. The bank last year indicated the potential of $825 million in long-term debt financing for Ivanhoe Electric’s (TSX: IE; NYSE-AM: IE) Santa Cruz copper project in Arizona.

“We need your support, and we’re really happy to get it,” Friedland told President Trump. “The morale of the miners is sky high.”

Watch a clip of the exchange above and the full White House video on the minerals stockpile here.