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Oyu Tolgoi is expected to be hugely profitable after it enters full production at the end of this decade.

Oyu Tolgoi is the poster project for a national mining boom that sees Ulaanbaatar crawling with foreign miners and their investment bankers.

Oyu Tolgoi is billed as one of the world's biggest undeveloped mine deposits and is expected to cost $4. 6 billion to build.

Above, miners return to the surface after a hard day's work in the gold and copper mine at Oyu Tolgoi, in the Gobi Desert, on June 25, 2010.

Its existing stake in Ivanhoe would give the Anglo-Australian miner a direct stake of about 20 per cent in Oyu Tolgoi.

Since 2006 the world's third-largest miner has indirectly funded Oyu Tolgoi by buying shares in Ivanhoe, often when cash flow was tight.

One, a copper-and-gold mine at Oyu Tolgoi (see article) is expected to start production in 2013.

Mongolia is also the site of major gold deposits, including at Oyu Tolgoi.

Rio has already spent $1. 7bn accumulating a stake in the Vancouver miner; this has been the primary funding mechanism for Oyu Tolgoi.

Rio, however, is funding most of Oyu Tolgoi's project costs.

Some 18, 000 workers are employed on Oyu Tolgoi, or "Turquoise Hill" , the largest undeveloped copper and gold mine in the world.

It is perhaps Mr Wang's experience scaling the 8, 205m Cho Oyu peak, in the Himalayas, that may set his company apart.

Ivanhoe holds 66 percent of Oyu Tolgoi, and the Mongolian government owns 34 percent.

Cho Oyu Peak: Ascend Summit in Five Hours

But oyu felt it and still feel it