Kakula Copper Mine underground development exceeds 1,840 metres in August; more than 20.6 kilometres now complete Installation of ball mills and other major equipment for Kakula’s first 3.8-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant well underway
September 1, 2020
Kakula Copper Mine underground development exceeds 1,840 metres
in August; more than 20.6 kilometres now complete
Installation of ball mills and other major equipment for Kakula’s first
3.8-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant well underway
Second mining crew added at the Kansoko Mine, increasing the pace
of underground development at Kamoa-Kakula’s second mine
Pre-production surface stockpiles at Kakula North, Kakula South and
Kansoko now contain an estimated 671,000 tonnes of ore
Ivanhoe Mines to issue independent definitive feasibility study
and expansion studies for the entire Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project on
September 8, 2020; host Investor Day on September 10, 2020
KOLWEZI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO – Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN; OTCQX:
IVPAF) Co-Chairs Robert Friedland and Yufeng “Miles” Sun announced today that
underground development at the Kakula Copper Mine totalled 1,842 metres in August,
bringing the cumulative total underground development completed to date to more than
20.6 kilometres – approximately 6.0 kilometres ahead of schedule.
The majority of the underground development headings at the Kakula Mine currently are
traversing medium-grade sections of the orebody, with average grades ranging between
3% and 5% copper. A concentrated effort was made in August to complete the ledging
development in the room-and-pillar section of the mine to accommodate critical
infrastructure, such as piping and electrical cabling, for the mine’s permanent water-
handling system.
The ledging development work will be completed early this month and will allow the
mining teams to begin highly-productive stoping operations; however, the development
work was in lower-grade ore and resulted in a temporary, modest decrease in overall
stockpile grade in August and early September.
The stockpile grade is expected to improve, as planned, beginning this month as the
majority of the working areas will transition to the higher-grade ore zones near the
centre of the deposit that have copper grades approximately +5% to +8%.
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The beneficial handover of the high-capacity ore conveyor system at the Kakula North
declines was achieved at the end of July. All of the ore being mined in the northern
portion of the Kakula Mine now is transported to surface via the conveyor system and
placed on a blended, run-of-mine surface stockpile. The blended stockpile contains
483,000 tonnes grading an estimated 3.76% copper; comprised of 116,000 tonnes of
high-grade ore grading 6.08% copper and 367,000 tonnes of medium-grade ore grading
3.02% copper.
Two additional, pre-production ore stockpiles are located at the Kakula South decline
(approximately 121,000 tonnes grading 2.36% copper) and the Kansoko decline
(approximately 68,000 tonnes grading 2.21% copper). More than 109,000 tonnes
of ore was added to the project’s pre-production stockpiles in August.
Surface conveyor systems to transport the ore from the Kakula North stockpile to the
processing plant are under construction.
First copper production expected in less than a year
Initial production at the Kakula Mine is scheduled for Q3 2021. Kakula is projected to be
the world’s highest-grade major copper mine, with an initial mining rate of 3.8 million
tonnes per annum (Mtpa) at an estimated average feed grade well in excess of 6%
copper over the first five years of operation.
The Kakula Mine will have one of the most favourable environmental footprints of any
tier-one copper mine anywhere in the world. The mine will be powered by clean,
renewable hydroelectricity and be among the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters
per unit of copper produced. Kakula also will have a relatively small surface footprint as
approximately 55% of the mine’s tailings will be pumped back into underground
workings.
The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%),
Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC
government (20%).
“Together with our joint-venture partners, we look forward to sharing the independently
verified engineering and economic studies on September 8th that will showcase why
Kamoa-Kakula is, without question, the world’s best new copper project,” said Mr.
Friedland. “Kamoa-Kakula is unique as it combines ultra-high-copper grades with thick,
shallow, flat-lying ore zones, providing the economies of scale and low mining costs of
large, open-pit mining operations, but without the visual environmental impact
associated with open-pit mining.”
“We also plan to soon announce the appointment of a leading environmental consulting
firm to audit Kamoa-Kakula’s greenhouse gas intensity metrics, providing
Environmental, Social and Governance investors with independent and transparent
verification of the project’s achievements towards our goal of producing the world’s
greenest copper,” Mr. Friedland added.
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Aerial view of the Kakula Mine showing the tonnes and grade of the main pre-
production stockpiles at the northern declines. The stockpile currently contains
approximately 483,000 tonnes grading 3.76% copper; comprised of
approximately 116,000 tonnes at 6.08% copper and 367,000 at 3.02% copper.
Kakula southern decline medium-grade ore stockpile currently containing
approximately 121,000 tonnes grading 2.36% copper.
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Kansoko decline medium-grade ore stockpile currently containing approximately
68,000 tonnes grading 2.21% copper.
Kakula Mine development progressing towards zone of +8% copper in centre
of deposit
Underground development of the Kakula Mine – the first of multiple, near-surface
copper deposits that are planned to be put into production on the 400-square-kilometre
Kamoa-Kakula mining licence – is now significantly ahead of schedule. Mine access
drives 1 and 2 (interconnected, parallel tunnels that will provide access to ore zones)
being driven from the Kakula northern declines continue to advance towards the
southern portion of the orebody.
Development of the eastern perimeter drives also is well advanced as are the access
drives to the room-and-pillar mining area. Development of twin access drives being
driven from Kakula’s southern portal has reached the +5% copper mining zone, with
mining crews working to establish the connection of these drives with mine access
drives 1 and 2 from the northern side of the orebody. The northern and southern access
drives are expected to join in November 2020, which will be a major milestone in the
development of the Kakula orebody.
Once the northern and southern access drives are connected, the majority of mining
activities will focus on the initial drift-and-fill mining blocks in the centre of the Kakula
deposit, where the average grade is higher than 8% copper. Drift-and-fill stoping is a
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highly-efficient form of underground mechanized mining and will allow the operation to
efficiently recover significantly more tonnes from the orebody.
Underground mining with two mining crews also is taking place at the Kansoko Mine,
located at the Kamoa deposit, approximately 10 kilometres north of the Kakula Mine.
The construction of Kakula’s second permanent underground water-handling system is
nearing completion with the first of four pump trains commissioned in early August; the
second pump train was commissioned in the last week of August. The new system adds
800 litres per second of underground pumping capacity, bringing the total installed
capacity to 1,400 litres per second. Two additional underground water dams are under
construction; one at bottom of the southern declines, and one along the north eastern
perimeter drifts.
Ivanhoe plans to issue the independent definitive feasibility study for the development
of the 6 Mtpa Kakula Mine on September 8, 2020. The company also will issue a pre-
feasibility study, including mining 1.6 Mtpa from the Kansoko Mine, to take full
advantage of an expanded plant capacity of 7.6 Mtpa at Kakula. In addition, the
company will issue an updated, expanded preliminary economic assessment for the
overall development plan of up to 19 Mtpa for all of the copper discoveries made to date
at the Kamoa-Kakula Project.
Martin Nkulu, conveyor belt attendant, monitoring high-grade copper ore being
delivered to surface via the Kakula North decline conveyor, which has the
capacity to transport 2,000 tonnes of ore an hour.
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A load of copper ore being transported up the Kakula South decline. One of the
two southern access drives has entered the +5%-copper mining zone, while the
other will enter it shortly. The southern access drives are expected to join the
northern access drives in November.
Kasongo Mahji at a surface settling pond for Kakula’s second permanent
underground dewatering pipe system that was commissioned in early August.
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Figure 1: The eastern portion of Kakula Mine ─ representing less than half of the
overall 13.3-kilometre-long Kakula Deposit ─ overlain on southern Manhattan
Island to give a sense of the scale of the underground operations.
Figure 2: Underground development completed to the end of July (in black) and scheduled development
(green, brown, blue & black) until September 30, 2020. Shown are the 3%, 5% and 8% copper contours and the
location where the northern and southern access drives are scheduled to join in November 2020 (red circle).