{"id":1176051,"date":"2020-04-03T14:31:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T20:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceworld.com\/?p=57738"},"modified":"2020-04-03T14:31:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T20:31:13","slug":"ivanhoe-locks-down-employees-in-drc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1176051","title":{"rendered":"Ivanhoe locks down employees in DRC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.<\/strong> [IVN-TSX; IVPAF-OTC] said it has adopted rigorous measures to protect the health of employees, contractors and communities while ensuring business continuity at its huge Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n

It said the announcement is a response to the fast-evolving impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

In response to government-imposed travel restrictions and emergency protocols being introduced worldwide, Ivanhoe said strict quarantine and lock-down procedures have been implemented at all three of the company\u2019s projects \u2013 Kamoa-Kakula, Platreef and Kipushi \u2013 to prevent the virus from spreading to the mine sites. To date, no COVID-19 cases have been discovered, the company said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Kamoa-Kakula is one of three projects that the company is advancing in Southern Africa. The others include mine development at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel copper discovery on the Northern Limb of South Africa\u2019s Bushveld Complex. The company is also developing the high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-germanium mine in the DRC.<\/p>\n

At Kamoa-Kakula, the mine site has been locked down and all key personnel remain on site, except for the supply of food and critical equipment under strict delivery protocols. A total of 881 employees, who were previously based in surrounding communities and Kolwezi, have been moved to permanent mine site accommodation.<\/p>\n

Up to 250 additional employees will be moved to the mine site once accommodations have been expanded and subject to appropriate and stringent quarantine protocols. At present, a total of 3,535 employees and contractors are based at the mine site, which ensures operational continuity and minimizes the impact on the development schedule.<\/p>\n

Platreef, meanwhile, has temporarily suspended its shaft-sinking operations until at least April 16, 2020, in compliance with the 21-day country-wide lock-down imposed by the South African Government effective March 26. The project is maintaining a small workforce to conduct care and maintenance activities in order to have the operations ready for when project development resumes.<\/p>\n

Kipushi has also suspended operations in order to reduce the risk to the workforce and local communities. The project is maintaining a small workforce to conduct care and maintenance activities, and to maintain pumping operations.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ivanhoe shares eased 2.9% or $0.07 to $2.30. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $1.80 and $4.54.<\/p>\n

Ivanhoe is led by Singapore-based mine financier Robert Friedland, who holds a 17% interest in the company. CITIC Metal Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned CITIC Group, recently agreed to invest an additional $612 million in Ivanhoe at $3.98 a share, raising its stake in Ivanhoe to 29.9% from just under 20%.<\/p>\n

Ivanhoe recently said the Kamoa-Kakula project is on track to start production in the third quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n

The forecast is among the highlights of the company\u2019s 2019 full year results, which also contain a review of mine construction progress and exploration activities.<\/p>\n

The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), China\u2019s Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Ltd. (0.8%), and the DRC government (20%). It already ranks among the world\u2019s biggest copper mines, with peak annual production expected to exceed 700,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n

The Kamoa Deposit \u2013 originally discovered by Ivanhoe Mines\u2019 geologists in 2008 \u2013 is one of two very large, near-surface, flat-lying, stratiform copper deposits discovered on a 400 km2 mining license. The other major deposit \u2013 Kakula is being fast-tracked to commercial production, with the initial 3.8 million-tonne-per-annum mining operation scheduled to produce first concentrate in the third quarter of 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. [IVN-TSX; IVPAF-OTC] said it has adopted rigorous measures to protect the health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[622,435],"tags":[33,102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1176051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176052,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176051\/revisions\/1176052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1176051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1176051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1176051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}