Ivanhoe Mines Reports Significantly Increased Hydroelectric Power Availability for Kamoa-Kakula

Ivanhoe Mines’ (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) Executive Co-Chair Robert Friedland and President & Chief Executive Officer Marna Cloete announced today, alongside the company’s first-quarter production results, that Kamoa-Kakula has reached a major turning point following a significant increase in imported hydroelectric power in recent weeks enabling the start-up of the new on-site copper smelter.

Imported hydroelectric power increased by 20 megawatts (MW) to 70 MW in mid-March. Imported hydropower is expected to increase further to 100 MW imminently, representing a 100% increase over recent weeks.

Kamoa-Kakula delivered record production during the last two weeks of March at an annualized rate above its 2025 guidance. The outperformance was also underpinned by strong operating performance from the new Phase 3 concentrator, which delivered record throughput and copper production, exceeding its nameplate design capacity.

Founder and Co-Chairman Robert Friedland commented:

“Despite recent volatility in global markets and with virtually all global equities knocked down by panic … and computerized trading algorithms … Ivanhoe Mines has a very strong balance sheet and generates powerful cash flows … In addition, we are in a privileged position with Kamoa-Kakula as one of the lowest-cost copper producers in our industry… and we expect our operating costs to decline even further as our state-of-the-art direct-to-blister smelter ramps up this year…

The production of 99.7% pure copper anodes will significantly reduce our C1 cash costs due to a more than 50% reduction in transportation costs per unit of contained copper and the enjoyment of by-product sulphuric acid sales … a critical commodity in great demand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s copper industry.

“We are delighted that Kamoa-Kakula’s growing pains, which led to power challenges, are behind us following our successful efforts to secure additional imported hydroelectricity … with more imported hydroelectric power from the Southern Africa Power Pool on its way very soon.

We now have in place a long-term energy security program that future-proofs our energy mix as we continue to grow into the very top ranks of the world’s largest copper production complexes.

“We are therefore sufficiently encouraged to inaugurate the startup of our state-of-the-art Kamoa-Kakula smelter… one of the largest and most technologically sophisticated smelters in the world.

With the smelter coming online, we will no longer simply be exporting copper concentrate – we will export the world’s greenest copper anodes for the energy transition.

As the world wakes up to a generational copper deficit, we have the assets, the people, and the infrastructure to deliver this responsibly sourced and most critical of all metals to world markets.”

During the first quarter, the Phase 1, 2, and 3 concentrators milled a record 3.72 million tonnes of ore and achieved a daily milling record of 51,528 tonnes of ore in late March.

The outperformance was underpinned by initiatives implemented earlier in the quarter that enabled the Phase 3 concentrator to be consistently fed at higher rates than originally designed.

Phase 3 milled a record 1.51 million tonnes of ore during the quarter. The record is equivalent to an annualized milling rate of 6.1 million tonnes per annum, which is more than 20% higher than the Phase 3 concentrator’s design capacity of 5.0 million tonnes per annum.

The Phase 1 and 2 concentrators also outperformed during the quarter, although operations were hampered by maintenance shutdowns in the first half of March.

During March, Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1, 2, and 3 concentrators produced an average of 1,509 tonnes of copper per day, which is equivalent to an annualized production rate of 550,000 tonnes per annum.

After maintenance on the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators was complete, copper production increased to a record average of 1,732 tonnes per day over the last 14 days of March.

The production record is equivalent to an annualized production rate of over 630,000 tonnes per annum, well in excess of the 2025 guidance. An outstanding daily production record of 1,919 tonnes of copper was also achieved on March 28, 2025.

Increase in imported power since mid-March to 70 megawatts; a further increase to 100 megawatts expected shortly

During March, total average power required for the Phase 1, 2, and 3 operations was between 130 and 140 MW. At the beginning of the month, Kamoa-Kakula was drawing 50 MW of domestically generated hydroelectric power, with 50 MW drawn from imported sources.

The balance of required power was from on-site, diesel-generated backup power, of which there is an installed capacity of up to 160 MW.

In March, an agreement was signed to increase total imported hydroelectric power via the Zambian interconnector by 40% from 50 MW to 70 MW.

The additional power is sourced from Mozambique via the Southern Africa Power Pool network. Kamoa-Kakula’s operations team expects a further increase in imported power to 100 MW within the coming days.

The increase in power has provided Kamoa-Kakula’s management team with the confidence to finalize commissioning and commence the start-up of the smelter.

Power drawn by the smelter is expected to gradually increase from 45 MW, following first concentrate feed, up to 70 MW once at full capacity.

In addition, wet commissioning of Turbine #5 at Inga II, with a hydroelectric generation capacity of 178 MW, is now expected to commence in the third quarter.

Kamoa-Kakula is expected to be allocated an initial, additional 50 MW of hydroelectric power once commissioning is complete, increasing up to 178 MW as the ongoing grid improvement initiatives are completed in 2026.

Smelter commissioning underway, with heat-up now expected to commence in May; first copper anode production expected in July

Commissioning of Kamoa-Kakula’s 500,000-tonne-per-annum, direct-to-blister copper smelter has started, with start-up expected to commence next month.

The initial heat-up process of the smelter is expected to take up to six weeks, after which the first feed of concentrate will begin. Initial production of copper anode is expected in July. Ramp up of the smelter is expected to be at approximately 80% by year-end.

As previously announced, it is expected that between 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate will be stockpiled in the on-site smelter concentrate storage shed prior to starting up the smelter.

At quarter-end, Kamoa-Kakula held approximately 48,000 tonnes of unsold copper in inventory, up from 30,000 tonnes of unsold copper at the end of 2024.

Approximately 20,000 tonnes of the increase in unsold copper inventory over the past three months was newly stored concentrate at the smelter ahead of its start-up.

The majority of the remaining unsold inventory is stored at the nearby Lualaba Copper Smelter (LCS) awaiting toll treatment. Once fully ramped up, Kamoa-Kakula’s on-site copper smelter is expected to hold approximately 17,000 tonnes of copper within its circuit.

The majority of the ore processed by the Phase 3 concentrator continues to be from underground development. The crews at the Kamoa and Kansoko underground mines are focused on underground development, opening up approximately 18 months of ore reserves prior to the commencement of primary mining.

Opening up a large accessible underground reserve base provides operational flexibility for the underground mining crews, similar to that which has already been achieved at the Kakula Mine.

The flat-lying nature of the Kamoa and Kakula orebodies means that underground development can be carried out in ore, albeit at lower grades.

Underground development of the Kamoa mines is expected to continue until Q4 2025, after which Phase 3 concentrator feed grades are expected to rise up to approximately 3% copper.

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