Canadian Ivanhoe Mines expands its mining project in DRC
Canadian mining company Ivanhoe Mines has announced the completion of an independently-verified, updated mineral resource estimate for the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The announcement was made by Ivanhoe co-chairs Robert Friedland and Yufeng “Miles” Sun at the 26th annual African Mining Indaba that was taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from February 3 to 6.
The Kamoa deposit, discovered by Ivanhoe geologists in 2008, is one of two very large copper deposits. The other major deposit is Kakula, which is being fast-tracked for commercial production. The initial 3.8 million-ton-per-annum mining operation is scheduled to produce its first concentrate in the third quarter of 2021, according to Friedland.
He said Kamoa’s Indicated Mineral Resources now total 760 million tons grading 2.73% copper, containing 45.8 billion pounds of copper.
“The delineation of Indicated Mineral Resources at the North Bonanza Zone and the Far North Zone continues the long history of exploration success at Kamoa-Kakula,” said George Gilchrist, Ivanhoe’s vice president for resources.
“We see excellent opportunity to add further shallow, higher-grade copper resources in the northern portion of the mining licence in the general vicinity of the Bonanza Zone and the Far North Zone, as well as on our adjoining wholly-owned Western Foreland exploration licences, which should allow us to further unlock the exciting potential of this resource area.”
