TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Africa-focused project developer Ivanplats on Wednesday said it had significantly increased the resources at two of its largest African projects and added that it was moving to finalise its mining-right application at the South African Platreef project this quarter.

Toronto-based Ivanplats, the brainchild of mining legend Robert Friedland, said a new independent resource estimate more than doubled the high-grade National Instrument 43-101-compliant indicated mineral resource at the Kamoa copper discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The January updated mineral resource increased Kamoa's indicated resources by 115% to 739-million tonnes grading 2.67% copper and containing 43.5-billion pounds of copper. This compared with the September 2011 estimate of 348-million tonnes grading 2.64% copper and containing 20.2-billion pounds of copper. Both estimates used a 1% copper cutoff grade and a minimum vertical mining thickness of 3 m.

Kamoa now ranked as Africa's largest high-grade copper discovery and the world's largest undeveloped high-grade copper discovery. Ivanplats said expanding the project’s resources represented a significant advance in Ivanplats' plans to bring the Kamoa project into production. Ivanplats discovered Kamoa in 2008 in a previously unknown extension, in the DRC, of the Central African Copperbelt.

Further, the new estimate included inferred resources of 227-million tonnes grading 1.96% copper and containing 9.8-billion pounds of copper, also at a 1% copper cutoff grade and a minimum vertical mining thickness of 3 m.

However, at a higher, 2% copper cutoff grade, Kamoa's indicated resources now totalled 550-million tonnes grading 3.04% copper and containing 36.9-billion pounds of copper. At the 2% cutoff, Kamoa also had 93-million tonnes of inferred resources grading 2.64% copper, which contained an estimated 5.4-billion pounds of copper.

Ivanplats said the current base-case, five-million-tonne-a-year mine plan estimated producing an average of 143 000 t/y of copper in the first ten years. Mining rates of up to 20-million tonnes a year were believed to be possible.

Meanwhile, in April, the DRC's State-owned power company, La Societé Nationale d'Electricité, signed a memorandum of understanding with Ivanplats to upgrade a third hydroelectric power plant, Nzilo 1, to secure an additional supply of sustainable electricity for the company's Kamoa project.

This upgrade would be in addition to the planned upgrades by Ivanplats of the Mwadingusha and Koni hydroelectric plants. The three plants could produce a combined 200 MW of long-term, clean electricity for the grid, which it is expected would be more than sufficient to launch production at Kamoa.

This month, Ivanplats had also expanded its mine-building team by appointing Brock Gill as MD of the Kamoa project and VP of DRC operations, effective from June 1. During the quarter, Ivanplats had also appointed senior mining executive Steve Garcia to lead the company's mine-building team in Africa.

Ivanplats had also appointed Andre Zeelie, Gopolang Enoch Makokwe and Jeremy Michaels as executives.

South African Improvement
Meanwhile, Ivanplats said it had received a new independent compliant technical report in March for its Flatreef deposit located within its Platreef deposit on the northern limb of South Africa’s Bushveld Igneous Complex.

At a 2 g/t cutoff grade for platinum, palladium, gold and rhodium (4E), the Flatreef deposit contained an estimated indicated resource of 214-million tonnes grading 4.1 g/t 4E, 0.34% nickel and 0.17% copper, containing about 28.5-million ounces of 4E, 1.61-billion pounds of nickel and 794-million pounds of copper.

At the same cutoff, the inferred resource totalled 415-million tonnes grading 3.5 g/t 4E, 0.33% nickel and 0.16% copper, containing about 47.2-million ounces more of 4E, three-billion pounds of nickel and 1.5-billion pounds of copper.

However, at a higher cutoff grade, of 3 g/t 4E, Flatreef was estimated to contain indicated resources totalling 137-million tonnes grading 5.09 g/t 4E, 0.38% nickel and 0.19% copper, containing an estimated 22.4-million ounces of 4E, 1.13-billion pounds of nickel and 558-million pounds of copper.

At the same cutoff, the inferred resources totalled 211-million tonnes grading 4.6 g/t 4E, 0.38% nickel and 0.18% copper, containing about 31.4-million ounces of 4E, 1.76-billion pounds of nickel and 855-million pounds of copper.

The Flatreef deposit averaged 24 m in true thickness at a 2 g/t cutoff grade for 4E and was potentially amenable to large-scale, mechanised underground mining.

The thick Flatreef mineralisation remains open, with about 37.5 km² of property untested.

Discovered in 2010, Flatreef is a zone of high-grade mineralisation that lies within a flat, to gently dipping, portion of Ivanplats’ 90%-owned Platreef.

Ivanplats was preparing a preliminary economic assessment for the project, which was expected to be released in the third quarter.

It added talks were under way with two potential shaft-sinking contractors in anticipation of the approval of the Platreef bulk sample application. A contract had also been signed with DRA Mineral Projects, to conduct the prefeasibility study, planned for completion early in 2014.

Ivanplats also reported its Kipushi historic high-grade zinc/copper mine, also on the Central African Copperbelt, was being dewatered and upgraded to support a future return to production of copper, zinc and other metals following the end of an 18-year care-and-maintenance programme in 2011.

Ivanplats had $216.6-million in cash and cash equivalents and $80-million in short-term deposits at its disposal as at March 31.

Its Toronto-listed shares on Wednesday traded 4.86% lower at C$2.35 apiece, the lowest level since Ivanplats’ initial public offering in October 2012.