Ivanhoe Mines Draws Bullish Options Trade

By David Russell, reporter at OptionMonster

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (TheStreet) -- Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) has been consolidating after a big rally three months ago and now one investor thinks it's ready to get moving.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker tracking system detected the purchase of about 10,000 June 18 calls for $1 and the sale of a matching number of June 20 calls for 40 cents, resulting in a debit of 60 cents. Volume was more than three times open interest in both strikes.

IVN rose 1.5% to $16.35 Thursday. The mine developer has been the subject of several large bullish trades over the past year as it prepares to bring its Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia online.

Earlier in the week, Ivanhoe announced Rio Tinto (RTP) had purchased another 15 million shares in the company for about $16.07 each. Proceeds will be used to finance investment at Oyu Tolgoi.

IVN rallied 46% between early December and early January, then fell back to support at $13 and has been grinding higher since.

The options trade, known as a bullish call spread, is designed to leverage a breakout to new highs. It will earn a maximum profit of 400% if IVN closes at or above $20 on expiration. The trade pushed overall options volume in the name to 17 times greater than average.

At the time of publication, Russell had no positions in Ivanhoe.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints