Kakula, the first mine planned at the Kamoa-Kakula concession, is initially forecast to generate 3.8 million tonnes of ore a year at an average feed grade “well in excess of 6% copper” over the first five years of operation.

The Vancouver-based miner aims to issue an independent definitive feasibility study for the development of the six-million-tonne-a-year Kakula mine later this month.

It also expects to issue a prefeasibility study, including mining the 1.6-million tonnes a year from the Kansoko mine, in order to “take full advantage of an expanded plant capacity of 7.6-million tonnes a year at Kakula.”

Ivanhoe’s co-chairperson Robert Friedland, who made his fortune from the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s, has been working on Kamoa-Kakula for ten years.

The mining veteran believes the project, being developed in partnership with China’s Zijin Mining Group, will become the world’s second-largest copper mine.

World’s “greenest” copper
Ivanhoe said it will soon announce the appointment of an environmental consultant to audit Kamoa-Kakula’s greenhouse-gas intensity metrics.

The firm’s report would provide environmental, social and governance investors with independent and transparent verification of the project’s contribution towards Ivanhoe’s goal of producing the world’s greenest copper, the miner said.

It also noted it was in “detailed discussions with a number of parties” about marketing and smelting its copper concentrates.

Last month, the company struck a strategic partnership with China Nonferrous Metal Mining (CNMC) to explore opportunities, including exploration and smelting, in Africa.

In January, CNMC opened Congo’s first large-scale copper smelter, the Lualaba Copper Smelter, 45km from the Kamoa-Kakula copper joint venture in the country’s southern copperbelt.

Kamoa-Kakula is a strategic partnership between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC government (20%).

The company is exploring for new copper discoveries on its wholly-owned Western Foreland exploration licenses, adjacent to the Kamoa-Kakula mining license.

Ivanhoe is also advancing the Platreef palladium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold-rhodium discovery in South Africa and upgrading its historic Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-lead-germanium mine, also in the DRC.