Against contractor advice, Friedland decided to implement the relatively new mining technology of heap leaching for the site during the middle of a snowy winter.
Friedland resigned from his positions at Galactic Resources on the day that the EPA issued their notice to Colorado regulators that they were taking action at Summitville.
Claiming to have only based his decisions on mining expert advice and having resigned two years before Galactic Resources went bankrupt, Friedland denied responsibility for the environmental damage to Summitville.
Friedland also operates Ivanhoe Capital from its corporate headquarters in Singapore – a location that has facilitated his focus on the Asia Pacific region.
Friedland was CEO of the original Ivanhoe Mines (now named Turquoise Hill Resources[10] (TRQ: TSX & NYSE)), which he founded as Indochina Goldfields in 1994 and led to a successful initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1996.
Exploration by Ivanhoe Mines since 2000 discovered a chain of copper, gold and silver deposits at Oyu Tolgoi (Turquoise Hill) in Mongolia's South Gobi region.
The first phase of what is independently projected to be one of the world's largest porphyry copper and gold mines (Oyu Tolgoi) began commercial production in 2013.
Friedland was the Chairman of Diamond Fields Resources when it was bought out for $4.3 billion[14] by Michael Sopko's INCO for its rich Voisey's Bay development.