{"id":1206047,"date":"2020-09-08T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1034881"},"modified":"2020-09-08T18:01:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T23:01:00","slug":"definite-feasibility-study-for-ivanhoes-kakula-confirms-giant-mine-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1206047","title":{"rendered":"Definitive feasibility study for Kakula confirms giant mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada\u2019s Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) published on Tuesday<\/a> the results of an independent definitive feasibility study (DFS) for its Kakula project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which confirms the asset could become the world\u2019s second largest copper mining complex.<\/p>\n

Kakula, the first underground mine planned at the Kamoa-Kakula concession, is forecast to generate 6 million tonnes of ore a year at an average feed grade of 6.6% copper over the first five years of operation, the study shows.<\/p>\n

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Ivanhoe said the document is an independent verification by nine of the world\u2019s top engineering firms of Kakula\u2019s robust economics<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Ivanhoe said the document is an independent verification by nine of the world\u2019s top engineering firms of Kakula\u2019s robust economics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe definitive feasibility study also confirms what we\u2019ve been telling investors for the past year and a half, and showcasing monthly in our progress galleries \u2013 the Kakula mine is being rapidly built, it is ahead of schedule, and is on budget,\u201d Ivanhoe\u2019s co-chairperson Robert Friedland said in the statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kakula, which is expected to begin production in less than a year<\/a>, will also have top ranking \u201cgreen\u201d credentials, according to Friedland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mine has been designed to produce the world\u2019s most environmentally-responsible copper, which is crucial for today\u2019s new generation of environmentally- and socially-focused investors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Phased development<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Vancouver-based company also issued a prefeasibility study for extracting 1.6-million tonnes of copper a year from the Kansoko mine  to \u201ctake full advantage of an expanded plant capacity of 7.6-million tonnes a year at Kakula.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivanhoe reiterated that the Kamoa-Kakula project, being developed in partnership with China\u2019s Zijin Mining Group<\/a>, will advance in stages until having four producing mines with a combined 19 million-tonne per year output rate. <\/p>\n

Peak annual copper production from Kakula, Kansoko, Kakula West and Kamoa North is expected to surpass 800,000 tonnes, the company said.<\/p>\n

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DFS evaluates development of a stage one, 6-Mtpa underground mine and surface processing complex at the Kakula deposit with a capacity of 7.6 Mtpa, built in two modules of 3.8 Mtpa<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Friedland, who made his fortune from the Voisey\u2019s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s, has been working on Kamoa-Kakula for ten years.<\/p>\n

Last month, the company struck a strategic partnership<\/a> with China Nonferrous Metal Mining (CNMC) to explore opportunities, including exploration and smelting, in Africa.<\/p>\n

In January, CNMC opened Congo\u2019s first large-scale copper smelter, the Lualaba Copper Smelter, 45km from the Kamoa-Kakula copper joint venture in the country\u2019s southern copperbelt.<\/p>\n

Kamoa-Kakula is a strategic partnership between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC government (20%).<\/p>\n

Ivanhoe is exploring for new copper discoveries on its wholly-owned Western Foreland exploration licenses, adjacent to the Kamoa-Kakula mining license.<\/p>\n

The company is also advancing the Platreef palladium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold-rhodium discovery in South Africa and upgrading its historic Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-lead-germanium mine, also in the DRC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Latest studies on Ivanhoe and Zijin’s Kamoa-Kakula project in the DRC show the asset could become the world’s second largest copper mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"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":[2849,949,369],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206047"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1206047"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1206683,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206047\/revisions\/1206683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1206047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1206047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1206047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}