DRC: Ivanhoe Mines announces a vast 2021 copper exploration program on its licenses near the Kamoa-Kakula project
The two co-chairmen of Ivanhoe Mines, Robert Friedland and Yufeng “Miles” Sun, announced on February 10 in a press release that the company plans to begin a large 2021 exploration program soon on its Western Foreland licenses held at 100% covering approximately 2,550 square kilometers in the immediate vicinity of the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ivanhoe’s exploration group in the DRC targets high-grade Kamoa-Kakula-style copper mineralization through a regional exploration and drilling program on the Western Foreland exploration field, which shares the same geological setting as Kamoa-Kakula. Exploration licenses owned 100% by Ivanhoe Mines cover the land that Ivanhoe’s geological team considers the most promising in the Western Foreland area.
“Although the COVID-19 pandemic reduced our field exploration plans in 2020, we were able to accomplish a significant number of geophysical surveys and sampling work, which are our primary prospecting techniques. early Central African Copperbelt, ”Friedland said.
The initial 2021 exploration program includes 40,000 meters of combined aerodynamic and diamond drilling, airborne and ground geophysics, soil sampling and road construction. Fieldwork will begin at the start of the 2021 dry season, which typically begins in April. The initial 2021 budget is $ 16 million, which can be increased depending on the results of the program. Much of this year’s exploration will focus on more than 1,700 square kilometers of new 100% owned permits that were acquired in 2019 and received environmental certification in 2020.
“Exploration is in our DNA, and given the exceptional regional prospectivity of our land holdings in the immediate vicinity of the Kamoa-Kakula discovery, we look forward to intensifying our exploration program in the most aggressive manner possible.” , added Friedland.
Ivanhoe geologists apply the same exploration models on the Western Foreland licenses that successfully led to the discoveries of Kakula, Kakula West, Makoko South and Kamoa North Bonanza Zone
“Our record of discovery success at Kamoa-Kakula is unparalleled, and we have enormous confidence in the ability and tenacity of our exploration team to leverage our proprietary exploration knowledge to deliver the next great discovery of copper from the DRC on our land, which is 100% owned, ”he added.
“It was in the spring of 2016 that the team of geologists now leading our exploration efforts at Western Foreland made the Kakula discovery, which turned the Kamoa-Kakula project into a mining operation for the highest quality copper. in the world. Considering the geological similarities between Kamoa-Kakula and our adjacent exploration land, which is more than six times the size of the Kamoa-Kakula mining license, the Western Foreland area is unmistakably one of the copper exploration districts. the most promising in the world.
Ivanhoe’s Western Foreland exploration project consists of 17 licenses north, south and west of the Kamoa mining licenses. The 17 licenses cover a total area of approximately 2,550 square kilometers. The main exploration target in the Western Foreland area is the sedimentary Kamoa-Kakula-type copper mineralization that lies at the base of the lower Nguba “large conglomerate”, particularly where the lower Nguba is in direct contact. with the underlying sandstones of Haut Roan.
