Description of Registrants Securities

The following summary of the material terms of the securities of Ivanhoe Electric, Inc. registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). This description of the terms of our stock does not purport to be a complete summary of the rights and preferences of such securities and is subject to and qualified by reference to the full text of the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws, copies of which have been filed as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). We urge you to read our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (“Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation”) and our amended and restated bylaws (“Amended and Restated Bylaws”) in their entirety for a complete description of the rights and preferences of our securities. As used in this “Description of Registrant’s Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,” references to the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us” refer solely to Ivanhoe Electric, Inc. and not to any of its subsidiaries, unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires.

General

Our authorized capital stock consists of 700,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the “common stock”), and 50,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the “preferred stock”).

Common stock outstanding. At January 16, 2023, there were 92,960,584 shares of common stock outstanding which were held of record by 191 stockholders. All outstanding shares of common stock are fully paid and non-assessable.

Voting rights. The holders of common stock are entitled to one vote per share on all matters to be voted upon by the stockholders, except on matters relating solely to terms of preferred stock.

Dividend rights. We do not intend to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future and currently intend to retain all future earnings to finance our business. Subject to preferences that may be applicable to any outstanding preferred stock, the holders of common stock are entitled to receive ratably such dividends, if any, as may be declared from time to time by our board of directors (the “Board of Directors”) out of funds legally available therefor.

Rights upon liquidation. In the event of liquidation, dissolution or winding up, the holders of common stock are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining after payment of liabilities, subject to prior distribution rights of preferred stock, if any, then outstanding.

Other rights. The holders of our common stock have no preemptive or conversion or exchange rights or other subscription rights.

Our Board of Directors has the authority to issue preferred stock in one or more series and to fix the rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions thereof, including dividend rights, dividend rates, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption, redemption prices, liquidation preferences and the number of shares constituting any series or the designation of such series, without further vote or action by the stockholders. The issuance of preferred stock may have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of our Company without further action by the stockholders and may adversely affect the voting and other rights of the holders of common stock. We currently have no plans to issue any preferred stock.

Our Amended and Restated Bylaws establish advance notice procedures with respect to stockholder proposals and nomination of candidates for election as directors.

Any action required or permitted to be taken by the stockholders must be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting of stockholders and may not be effected by any consent in writing in lieu of a meeting of such stockholders, subject to the rights of the holders of any series of preferred stock. 

Special meetings of the stockholders may be called at any time only by (i) the Chair of the Board of Directors, (ii) the Chief Executive Officer, or (iii) our Board of Directors pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Board of Directors.

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; (ii) any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty; (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising under the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”); and (iv) any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The foregoing provision does not apply to claims under the Securities Act, the Exchange Act or any claim for which the United States federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation further provides that the federal district courts of the United States will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.

Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation also provides that any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in shares of our capital stock will be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to these choice of forum provisions. These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

While Delaware courts have determined that choice of forum provisions are facially valid, it is possible that a court of law in another jurisdiction could rule that the choice of forum provisions to be contained in our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation are inapplicable or unenforceable if they are challenged in a proceeding or otherwise. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision in our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.

Generally, the amendment of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation requires approval by our Board of Directors and the vote of holders of more than 66.67% of the votes entitled to be cast by the outstanding capital stock in the election of our Board of Directors. Any amendment to our Amended and Restated Bylaws requires the approval of either a majority of our Board of Directors or holders of more than 66.67% of the votes entitled to be cast by the outstanding capital stock in the election of our Board of Directors.

Our Board of Directors consists of a single class of directors and directors will serve until a successor is duly elected and qualified or until a director’s earlier death, removal or resignation (other than directors that may be elected by holders of our preferred shares, if any).

Under Section 141 of the DGCL, directors may be removed with or without cause, by the holders of a majority of the shares then entitled to vote at an election of directors. Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated Bylaws provide that any vacancy on our Board of Directors, including a vacancy resulting from an enlargement of our Board of Directors, may be filled by vote of a majority of our directors then in office. Our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation provides that the authorized number of directors may be changed only by resolution of our Board of Directors.

Under Section 203, the restrictions described above also do not apply to specific business combinations proposed by an interested stockholder following the announcement or notification of designated extraordinary transactions involving the corporation and a person who had not been an interested stockholder during the previous three years or who became an interested stockholder with the approval of a majority of the corporation’s directors, if such extraordinary transaction is approved or not opposed by a majority of the directors who were directors prior to any person becoming an interested stockholder during the previous three years or were recommended for election or elected to succeed such directors by a majority of such directors.

Section 203 may make it more difficult for a person who would be an interested stockholder to effect various business combinations with a corporation for a three-year period. Section 203 also may have the effect of preventing changes in our management and could make it more difficult to accomplish transactions which our stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests.

Some provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation and Amended and Restated Bylaws could make the acquisition of control of us by means of a proxy contest or otherwise more difficult.

These provisions, as well as our ability to issue preferred stock, are designed to discourage coercive takeover practices and inadequate takeover bids. These provisions are also designed to encourage persons seeking to acquire control of us to first negotiate with our Board of Directors. We believe that the benefits of increased protection give us the potential ability to negotiate with the proponent of an unfriendly or unsolicited proposal to acquire or restructure us, and that the benefits of this increased protection outweigh the disadvantages of discouraging those proposals, because negotiation of those proposals could result in an improvement of their terms.

Our common stock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol “IE” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange also under the symbol “IE.”

The United States transfer agent and registrar for the common stock is ComputerShare Investor Services Inc., located at 250 Royall Street Canton, MA 02021 and the Canadian transfer agent and registrar for the common stock is ComputerShare Investor Services Inc. located at 510 Burrard Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 3B9.