Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining’s joint venture (JV) Kamoa Copper has signed offtake agreements with CITIC Metal and Gold Mountain Mining for a 50pc share each of its Phase I copper concentrate and blister copper output.
Both Gold Mountain Mining—Zijin’s wholly owned subsidiary—and CITIC will pay $150mn each in advance that Kamoa Copper can use from Jun 10 this year until May 31, 2023, according to media reports on Wednesday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government authorized copper production at Kamoa-Kakula earlier this month. Per its production plan, the project’s 2021 concentrate output will have 80,000mt to 90,000mt of contained copper, noted Zijin Mining on Jun 10.
Kamoa-Kakula had also signed a ten-year agreement with DRC’s Lualaba copper smelter in late May this year for processing a portion of copper concentrate to produce 99pc blister copper. This is Phase I for Kamoa Copper’s unit with a total capacity of 3.8mn mt and an annual copper concentrate output target of 200,000mt per year.