Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) said Monday that drilling on its Western Foreland licences in the Democratic Republic of Congo, immediately north of the company’s flagship Kamoa-Kakula copper project, has hit several extensions of the mine.
The Vancouver-based company, which recently received a C$612 million ($465m) cash injection from China’s state-owned CITIC Metal to fast-track the vast copper project into production, said the find extends the strike length of the shallow, thick copper discovery to at least 550 metres north.
It also shows that the Kamoa far north high-grade shallow
copper corridor goes on for at least 400 metres.
New assays return copper grades up to 13.80% over 15.50 metres in the central discovery area, the company said.
“Discovery of KPS-hosted mineralization at Kamoa North opens the door to multiple exploration opportunities at Kamoa-Kakula and the adjoining Western Foreland ground.”
Robert Friedland, Ivanhoe Mines’ founder and executive chairman.
“Given the shallow depth of the Kamoa North mineralization and the remarkable copper grades and thicknesses encountered to date, Kamoa-Kakula’s engineering team already is working on conceptual development plans to access the ultra-high-grade mineralization,” billionaire Robert Friedland, the company’s founder and executive chairman said in the statement.
Friedland, who made his fortune from the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s, has said the capacity of the project’s first phase could later be easily tripled. He believes Kamoa-Kakula has the potential to become the world’s second-largest copper mine.
When fully developed, the mining complex could produce
382,000 tonnes of copper a year during the first 10 years, climbing to 700,000
tonnes of copper after 12 years of operations. Friedland believes it could
restore the DRC to its historical position as one of the world’s top copper
producing countries.
Ivanhoe Mines has been working on Kamoa-Kakula for ten years. In 2015, its now partner Zijin Mining Group, China’s No.1 gold producer got on board by acquiring a stake in the company. Citic Metal followed suit last year, becoming Ivanhoe’s largest shareholder.
Shares in Ivanhoe jumped 1.5% on the news to C$4.15 in in Toronto early in the day. Year-to-date, the stock is up a whooping 76%, valuing the company at about C$4.2 billion ($3.2 billion).
