Cashed-up base and precious metals developer Ivanhoe Mines is considering accelerating the Phase 3 concentrator expansion at its Kamoa-Kakula project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), following the recent success of its $575-million convertible notes financing.

The Canadian company, which owns the project in a joint venture with China’s Zijin Mining, already brought forward Phase 2 production to the third quarter of 2022. Phase 2 will increase copper output to 400 000 t/y, or about 880-million pounds a year.

“Our improved capital position now opens the distinct possibility of earlier development of the Phase 3 expansion, which will bring copper production at Kamoa-Kakula up to approximately 530 000 t, or approximately 1.2-billion pounds, per year,” says Ivanhoe Mines co-chairperson Robert Friedland.

The Kamoa-Kakula project entails five incremental phases of 3.8-million tonnes a year each, which, once completed, will position the 19-million-tonne-a-year operation as the world’s second-largest copper mining complex, with output peaking at 800 000 t/y.

Production from the first phase is expected to start in July this year, which will mark Ivanhoe’s transition from an explorer and developer to a mining company, which produces copper, platinum-group metals and nickel.

The additional funding also allows Ivanhoe to accelerate hydropower upgrades to provide sufficient clean and renewable electricity for Kamoa-Kakula expansions, including a smelter, and to step up exploration work at its Western Foreland project.

Friedland describes expedited hydropower upgrades as a “high-priority opportunity”, as the company seeks to produce the “green” copper that the world energy transition requires.                                         

An independent audit of Kamoa-Kakula’s greenhouse gas intensity metrics has calculated that the project will be among the world’s lowest greenhouse gas emitters per unit of copper produced.

Regarding downstream plans, Ivanhoe reports that Kamoa Copper is considering the potential construction of a smelting complex to produce blister and anode copper.

Investing in a smelter will reduce transportation and logistics costs, export taxes and concentrate treatment charges, while also producing sulphuric acid as a byproduct, the company states.

Based on Finland’s Outotec direct-to-blister furnace technology, the smelter complex will have a design capacity of 750 000 t/y to one-million tonnes a year of concentrate feed, producing more than 400 000 t/y of copper in the form of blister and anode.

According to the 2020 preliminary economic assessment for Kamoa-Kakula such a project will require $600-million.

Meanwhile, Ivanhoe says field work as part of the 2021 exploration programme on its Western Foreland exploration licences – in close proximity to Kamoa-Kakula – will begin at the start of the dry season, which is typically in April.

The initial 2021 budget is $16-million and the programme includes 40 000 m of drilling, geophysics, soil sampling and road construction.

“Given the identical geology between Kamoa-Kakula and our adjoining exploration ground, which is more than six times larger in area than the Kamoa-Kakula mining licence, the Western Foreland Exploration project is unquestionably one of the most compelling copper exploration districts anywhere on this planet,” says Ivanhoe president and CEO Marna Cloete.

“We are in the privileged position of owning a massive land package with outstanding geological potential next door to our Kamoa and Kakula discoveries. We are highly confident that we have the secret sauce for additional exploration successes in our backyard.”