Canadian mining company, Ivanhoe is moving forward with its three mining projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Africa.
The company’s projects in the DRC include the Kamoa-Kakula copper mission and the widespread advancement of the Kipushi mine, that covers zinc, copper, and lead.
The Kakula project is anticipated to produce the highest-grades of copper with a preliminary mining rate of 3.8mn mt per year and an assessed feed grade of over 6pc copper within the first five years of business.
The essential production plan and price estimates for Kakula’s second phase plan, which is to develop it to produce 7.6mn mt annually, is also complete, the company noted. The opportunity includes the underground development at Kakula to attain a yearly production rate of 6mn mt per year, the start of firm mining operations of 1.6mn mt annually at the Kansoko mine, and a second 3.8mn mt annual concentrator unit at Kakula.
The company is also searching for new copper locations under the permit of its fully owned Western Foreland exploration, next to the Kamoa-Kakula mining license, the miner said in a news release. Ivanhoe added that preliminary output from the Kakula copper mine is expected by Q3 2021.
The Kipushi mine has been assigned budget cuts since April 2020 and operations have been temporarily suspended; however, a major upgrading program is underway at the mine, Ivanhoe indicated. Once production resumes, the mine is projected to produce over 380,000mt of zinc concentrate per year over the next 11 years.
In South Africa, the miner is working on the Platreef discovery, which involves the mining of several metals. The development work at Platreef is now focused on preparing its No. 1 shaft for initial production with further study and progress plan stages to be supplied in September.