The Kamoa-Kakula copper project is a joint venture between Canadian copper miner Ivanhoe Mines, China-headquartered Zijin Mining Group, Crystal River Global and the DRC government.
According to Ivanhoe, the hot commissioning activities at Kamoa-Kakula are well advanced. The team is preparing for the final performance tests to begin shortly, concluding the C4 (or hot) commissioning activities.
On May 20, the first ore was fed into the concentrator plant, and five days later copper concentrate production began - this was several months ahead of the original schedule.
The first copper concentrate was delivered by truck to a local smelter on June 1 and daily concentrate deliveries are ongoing. Over 10,500t of dry concentrate has been delivered to date, and the first blister copper ingots have been received.
The company mined 338,000t of copper in June, grading 4.59%. By the end of June, 313,00t of ore had been conveyed to the run-of-mine (ROM) stockpile, grading 4.85% copper. The pre-production surface stockpiles at the project reportedly contain approximately 3.4Mt of high- and medium-grade ore, with an estimated blended average of 4.78% copper, so contained copper in the stockpiles is more than 162,000t.
The initial mining rate is estimated to be 3.8Mt/y, ramping up to 7.6Mt/y by the third quarter of 2022. Phase 1 is forecast to produce approximately 200,000t/y of copper, while phases 1 and 2 are jointly predicted to produce approximately 400,000t/y of copper.
Ivanhoe stated that independent benchmarking of the project's phased expansion scenario to 19Mt/y and peak copper production of more than 800,000t/y said that Kamoa-Kakula will become the second-largest copper mining complex globally.
Mark Farren, CEO of Kamoa Copper, commented: "The past month was dedicated to the Phase 1 plant commissioning, after celebrating Kamoa's first concentrate production on May 25. The team has moved on steadily with C4 plant commissioning. This is expected to take approximately four months, with incremental improvements in production expected as the plant is fully ramped up to design capacity. It was a very encouraging operational performance in June. We expect to achieve copper production for the remainder of the year in line with guidance, and solid progress also is being made on the Phase 2 concentrator plant construction, which is still tracking ahead of schedule."
The civil works and structural steel construction at the mine are ahead of schedule, with more than 70% of civil works complete for the second concentrator plant. The engineering and procurement activities are reportedly over 80% complete. The electrical, control and instrumentation installation contract will be awarded soon.
A fleet of battery-powered or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is planned for the mine. Five of the six new turbines at the Mwadingusha hydropower plant are now operational and have been synchronised to the DRC national electrical grid. Each generating unit is producing around 13MW of power. The completion and commissioning of the remaining turbine is underway and it is expected to be synchronised to the grid in August.
Last month, Ivanhoe revealed that it had signed copper concentrate and blister copper offtake agreements with two Chinese companies, CITIC Metal and Gold Mountains International Mining Co, for each to receive 50% of the copper products from Phase 1 production at Kamoa-Kakula. It also cleared the hurdle of a renewed ban on copper concentrate exports from the DRC and secured full authorisation to export Kamoa-Kakula copper products to international markets.
Marna Cloete, president and CFO of Ivanhoe Mines, said: "We are extremely pleased to have agreements with our partners CITIC Metal and Zijin at internationally competitive terms, and to have recently secured a long-term tolling agreement with the local Lualaba copper smelter in keeping with our commitment to in-country beneficiation that includes Kamoa Copper's longer-term plan to construct its own direct-to-blister smelter.
"We also have secured all necessary authorisations to commence export of clean, hydro-electricity-produced copper products from the Kamoa-Kakula mine to meet growing demand for the electrification of the world economy."
In June, Ivanhoe published its fourth annual Sustainability Report outlining its goals and achievements in its efforts to become a global environmental, social and governance (ESG) leader in the mining industry.
Dr Patricia Makhesha, executive vice president, sustainability and special projects at Ivanhoe Mines, commented: "Ivanhoe's culture is the heartbeat of our organisation and is integral to everything that we do. Our culture is one of caring for others, and therefore of operating with the best interests of our key stakeholders in mind."
