Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa Copper began exporting copper concentrate on Jul 17 following a boost in production.
Marna Cloete, Ivanhoe Mines’ president and chief financial officer stated that as Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1 concentrator plant moves towards steady-state production, Kamoa is producing enough concentrate for exports to international smelters.
Kamoa began copper concentrate production on May 25 and then made its first delivery to Lualaba Copper Smelter on Jun 1. The first truckloads of Kamoa-Kakula’s blister copper ingots are expected to be exported from this smelter to international markets this week.
Shipments of copper concentrate are being exported in bags containing an estimated 2mt. The approvals process will take around five days, after which the trucks will travel to the port of Durban, South Africa.
The company was granted all required authorizations from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government on Jun 8. Kamoa intends to produce between 80,000mt and 95,000mt of contained copper in concentrate this year.