Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines reported that it had completed 80pc of the construction at its Kamoa-Kokula copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The pre-production ore stockpile is now 2.16mn mt and contains around 95,000mt of copper metal.
The mine is preparing to stock more than 3mn mt of high and medium grade ore containing 125,000mt of copper before production starts in July 2021. The next phase of expansion is set for September 2022. The company has forecast the combined copper production of 400,000mt per year from both phases.
The company mined approximately 300,000mt at an average grade of 5.45pc copper in January 2021 and 339,000mt of an average grade of 5.5pc copper in February 2021. Ivanhoe’s resource estimate shows that the Kamoa-Kakula project holds indicated resources of 1.4bn mt of ore with 83.7bn lbs (3.8mn mt) of copper graded at 2.74pc.