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MODERN MINING
October 2016
COPPER
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
Kamoa/Kakula ranks as Africa’s
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.
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.