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Ivanhoe Mines’ Kipushi dewatering now 76% complete

30th October 2013

By: Henry Lazenby

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

  

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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines has dewatered about 76% of the water above the 1 150 m level of the historic Kipushi mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), representing about 63% of water throughout all the levels of the mine.

The company reported on Wednesday that the water level, which at its peak had reached 851 m below the surface, was reduced to 1 100 m below the surface – leaving only 50 m more to be cleared before the main working level at 1 150 m could be accessed and upgraded.

The mine's underground workings were extensively flooded during its previous 18 years of care and maintenance as a former State-owned asset, after being shuttered due to political unrest in 1993.

Ivanhoe said it expected to access the main working level by December, while it would continue to dewater the bottom of the ramp decline, 1 270 m below the surface, during the first quarter of 2014.

A steadier electricity supply from the DRC national grid from May had boosted the dewatering progress and had allowed the company to add additional pumping capacity.

Steelwork and equipment were also being progressively replaced and upgraded as the water level dropped.

The company said it planned to undertake an aggressive diamond-drilling programme designed to confirm the mine’s estimated remaining resources, as well as to find new resources on strike and at depth. The programme would comprise about 20 000 m over 100 holes.

From its start-up in 1924 as the Prince Léopold mine, Kipushi produced a total of 6.6-million tonnes of zinc and four-million tonnes of copper from 60-million tonnes of ore grading 11% zinc and about 7% copper, until 1993.

Between 1956 and 1978 the mine also produced 278 t of germanium, a high-tech metal used in light-emitting diodes, fibre-optic networks, infrared night vision systems and solar cell applications; it was currently garnering a spot price of about $1 850/kg.

Kipushi also contains the Big Zinc, a bonanza-grade zinc deposit discovered at about 1 200 m below the surface in the early 1990s, shortly before the mine's closure. The Big Zinc, which remains unmined and open to depth, would be accessible from existing underground workings.

Based on drilling reports by State-owned mining company La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, or Gécamines, multiple steeply dipping exploratory holes have intersected exceptionally high-grade zinc mineralisation, grading 42% to 45% zinc, between the 1 375-m-level and 1 600-m-level elevations, with more than 60 m to 100 m of apparent thickness.

South Africa's national mineral research organisation Mintek recently completed a preliminary metallurgical test campaign on existing drill core from the Big Zinc, and comminution tests indicated that the material was soft and, therefore, easy to crush and mill. Flotation tests indicated that the material was easily upgradable to a very high-grade concentrate composition at high zinc recoveries.

Kipushi currently has a historic measured and indicated resource - stated only to the 1 500 m level - of 16.92-million tonnes grading 2.32% copper and 16.76% zinc.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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