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Construction, investments progress at Kamoa-Kakula

16th August 2019

     

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Significant progress is being made in the construction of the Kakula copper mine – the Stage 1, six-million-ton-a-year operation – on the tier-one Kamoa-Kakula project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Canadian mining company Ivanhoe Mines co-chairpersons Robert Friedland and Yufeng ‘Miles’ Sun.

Kamoa-Kakula is a large, near-surface, flat-lying, stratiform copper deposit with adjacent prospective exploration areas within the Central African Copperbelt, about 25 km west of the town of Kolwezi and about 270 km west of the provincial capital of Lubumbashi.

Since the announcement of China-based China International Trust Investment Corporation Metal, known as CITIC Metal, agreeing to invest an additional $459-million in Ivanhoe by way of a private placement, the pace of underground mine development has accelerated and the first access drives are approaching Kakula’s initial high-grade ore Ivanhoe noted in a press release in June.

In addition, Ivanhoe and joint venture (JV) partner Chinese gold, copper and nonferrous metals producer and refiner Zijin Mining have started earthworks for the surface processing plant and have issued tenders for the long-lead mining and processing equipment. Initial copper concentrate production from the Kakula mine is currently scheduled for the third quarter of 2021.

“With the initial mine development of Kakula soon to be fully financed, we now are focused on rapidly advancing the construction of surface infrastructure and the processing plant to match the accelerating pace of development of the underground mine workings and to transform Kakula into one of the world’s greatest copper mines. The shallow, thick, high-grade nature of the orebody will enable us to ramp up production quickly,” according to Friedland.

About 2 500 employees and contractors are now working at the Kamoa-Kakula project as Ivanhoe and its partners advance construction of the project’s initial mine at the Kakula deposit. Congolese nationals comprise more than 90% of the project’s current workforce.

A total of 647 m of underground development was completed in May, about 100 m more than achieved in April. Lower-grade development ore is being stockpiled on surface near the site of the concentrator plant. This ore will be used for plant commissioning. Mine access drives 1 and 2 (interconnected, parallel tunnels that will provide access to ore zones) are about 200 m from Kakula’s initial high-grade mining area, and these priority drives are expected to intersect the higher-grade ore in late July or early this month.

Earlier in June, the Kamoa-Kakula project achieved a total of more than 14.5-million work hours free of lost-time injuries. It has been about seven years since the last lost-time injury occurred at the project. This outstanding achievement reflects the dedication to a safety-focused culture of the entire Kamoa-Kakula exploration and development teams.

Additionally, with the onset of the dry season in the DRC, construction of the new highway directly linking the Kamoa-Kakula copper project to the Kolwezi airport, located south-east of the city of Kolwezi, is progressing rapidly.

The new 34-km, east-west road was about 25% complete in June and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2019, according to the company. When complete, the road will significantly improve Kamoa-Kakula’s transportation corridor that is being used to bring in mining equipment and construction materials, and that will be used to transport copper concentrates. The new road will also improve the safety and commuting time for employees between Kamoa-Kakula, Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, as well as mine visitors arriving at the Kolwezi airport.

The new road will provide Kamoa-Kakula with a direct, high-quality connection to the national road between Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, and to a proposed, new south-bound provincial road that will connect to Lumwana, Zambia and the Zambian rail system, by means of a planned new border crossing. This proposed heavy-haul route to Zambia will significantly streamline truck freight to and from Kamoa-Kakula.

The Kamoa-Kakula JV is constructing 19 km of the new provincial road, while the Lualaba provincial government is constructing the remaining 15 km under a toll concession agreement with a DRC-based contracting company. The toll road will also include a new northbound, 9 km section of road connecting all the mines on the western side of Kolwezi to the new provincial road.

A separate 8 km, private mine access road is also being constructed by the Kamoa-Kakula JV at Kamoa-Kakula to safely bypass the villages of Israel and Kaponda. This road is also expected to be fully operational by the end of 2019 and will connect the Kakula mine directly to the new 34 km provincial road. The private mine road also will be available for transporting ore mined elsewhere on the Kamoa-Kakula project to the Kakula concentrator for processing.

Edited by Mia Breytenbach
Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

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