Modern Mining October 2016

COPPER

Kamoa/Kakula ranks as Africa’s

K akula is the second major dis- covery on the Kamoa mining licence in the past eight years. Now, with the addition of Kaku- la’s mineral resources, research by Wood Mackenzie – a prominent, interna- tional industry research and consulting group based in the UK – has independently demon- strated that the Kamoa-Kakula project is the largest copper discovery in Zambia and the DRC, making it the largest copper discovery ever made in the history of mining on the Af- rican continent. Research by Wood Mackenzie also shows that Kamoa-Kakula already ranks among the 10 largest copper deposits in the world by contained copper. The only bigger ones are Escondida (Chile), Olympic Dam (Australia), Collahuasi (Chile) and Grasberg (Indonesia). In addition, Kamoa-Kakula beats all the other ‘Top 10’ deposits in terms of grade by a wide margin and also ranks as the world’s biggest undevel- oped copper deposit. In Africa, its nearest competitors are Tenke Fungurume and Kamoto, both located in Katanga Province. “With the initial resource now established, we are evaluating technical and infrastructure options to rapidly advance the development of the near-surface, highest-grade copper resources at Kakula,” said Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe. “Our mine planning will focus on how to expeditiously develop the zones of thick, bottom-loaded chal- cocite, grading in excess of 6 % copper, near the centre of Kakula’s high-grade area. “Given that the copper grades at Kakula are significantly higher than the average grades found elsewhere at Kamoa, we are highly confident that fast-tracking the development of Kakula will have a profound and positive impact on the economics of the overall Kamoa- Kakula project.” The 60 km 2 Kakula exploration area is approximately 10 km south-west of Kamoa’s initial mine development presently under- way at the Kansoko Sud discovery. Ivanhoe and Zijin have been conducting an aggressive drilling programme at the Kakula exploration target since April 2016. More than 31 000 m of drilling have already been completed. Given the outstanding success to date in delineat- ing high-grade copper resources, the Kakula drilling programme has been expanded

TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines has completed an independently verified, initial mineral resource estimate for the extremely high-grade Kakula discovery on the Tier One Kamoa copper project near the mining centre of Kolwezi in the DRC’s Katanga Province. According to the company, the Kamoa/Kakula project – a joint venture between Ivanhoe, Zijin Mining and the DRC government – has now been confirmed as the largest copper discovery ever made on the African continent.

A drilling teamworking at Kakula earlier this year. The Kakula area is approximately 10 km south-west of the Kamoa project’s Kansoko Sud boxcut.

26  MODERN MINING  October 2016