Ivanhoe Mines announced that the Phase 3 concentrator has achieved successful commercial production at the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A landmark endorsement for the company and its mining projects under development.
The success of the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex
Robert Friedland, co-chief executive officer, and Marna Cloete, president of the company, commented on the success of the operations team, highlighting Kamoa-Kakula’s ability to deliver copper development projects on a global scale, ahead of each of the planned schedules.
According to Friedland, the start of commercial production in Phase 3 and July’s record July are indicative of rapid growth in copper production by the second half of 2024. Phase 3 will increase the annualized production capacity of the complex from approximately 450,000 tons to over 600,000 tons of copper.
Start-up of Phase 3 commenced ahead of schedule on May 28, 2024 and copper concentrate production commenced on June 10, 2024. This accelerated schedule is largely due to the experience gained during Phases 1 and 2. The Phase 3 concentrator has been consistently grinding at its nominal rate of 5 million tons of ore per year, and at times has exceeded this capacity by 19%, during 24 hour periods.
Currently, the installation of the fine grinding mills, manufactured by Metso Corporation, is underway and they are expected to start operations by the end of August. These mills are vital to increase the copper recovery rate from 80% to 86%. Ivanhoe Mines has also initiated“Project 95“, which aims to increase the recovery rate to over 90% and further increase processing capacity.
Since production was achieved, Phase 3 has generated over 11,000 tons of copper concentrate, with the first sale made in July. To date, over 33,000 wet metric tons of concentrate has been delivered to the Lualaba Copper Smelter(LCS) at Kolwezi. The Phase 3 concentrator is expected to produce approximately 150,000 tons of copper per year, and the total capacity of the Kamoa-Kakula complex is expected to exceed 600,000 tons per year, making it the third largest copper mining operation in the world.
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Source and photo: Ivanhoe Mines
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