Modern Mining June 2019

MINING News

Construction of Kakula copper mine now in full swing

is expected to be published early next year. “With the initial mine development of Kakula soon to be fully financed, we now are focused on rapidly advancing the con- struction of surface infrastructure and the processing plant to match the accelerating pace of development of the underground mine workings and to transform Kakula into one of the world’s greatest copper mines. The shallow, thick, high-grade nature of the orebody will allow us to ramp up production quickly,” comments Robert Friedland, Co-Chairman of Ivanhoe. “The significant progress to date has been the result of the collaborative efforts of many international and DRC-based stakeholders. Now that development is well underway and we have a clear line of sight to the first copper production, it is our goal to take as many top-tier interna- tional, institutional mining investors to the mine site so that they can see first-hand the scope and quality of development work being performed by the Kamoa- Kakula team, many of whom are from the communities surrounding the project. “These investors also will get to see the drill core from the new Kamoa North Bonanza Zone – with multiple, thick inter- cepts that run greater than 15 % copper – and gain an in-depth appreciation as to why we are so excited about the potential of this extraordinary discovery.” Approximately 2 500 employees and contractors are now working at Kamoa- Kakula as Ivanhoe and its partners advance the project. Congolese nationals comprise more than 90 % of the current workforce. A total of 647 m of underground development was completed in May, approximately 100 m more than achieved in April. Lower-grade development ore is being stockpiled on surface near the site of the concentrator plant. This ore will be used for plant commissioning. Mine access drives 1 and 2 (interconnected, parallel tunnels that will provide access to ore zones) are approximately 200 m from Kakula’s initial high-grade mining area, and these priority drives are expected to intersect the higher grade ore in late July or early August this year. The Kakula mine access is via twin declines on the northern side (which have been completed) and a single decline on the south side of the deposit (under devel-

TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines reports that excellent progress is being made in the construction of the Kakula copper mine – the stage one, 6 Mt/a operation – on the tier-one Kamoa-Kakula project near Kolwezi in the DRC. On April 25, 2019, Ivanhoe announced that China-based CITIC Metal had agreed to invest an additional C$612 million (US$459 million) in Ivanhoe by way of a private placement. Since that announce- ment, the pace of underground mine development has accelerated and the first access drives are approaching Kakula’s ini-

tial high-grade ore. In addition, Ivanhoe and its joint-venture partner, Zijin Mining, have commenced earthworks for the sur- face processing plant and have issued tenders for the long-lead mining and processing equipment. Initial copper con- centrate production from the Kakula mine is currently scheduled for the third quarter of 2021. The initial, five-year, detailed mine design has now been finalised and pro- duction scheduling is in progress. The full, detailedmine design will be included in the independent definitive feasibility study that

Large-capacity, semi-autonomous mining equipment in operation underground at the Kakula mine (photo: Ivanhoe Mines).

Altus Strategies acquires VMS target in Ethiopia Africa-focused project and royalty gen- erator Altus Strategies, listed on London’s AIM and the TSX-V, has announced that its 100 %-owned Ethiopian-focused subsid- iary, Altau Resources, has been granted the 285 km 2 Zager exploration licence, targeting volcanogenicmassive sulphide (VMS) hosted copper and gold deposits in the Tigray National Regional State of northern Ethiopia. Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented: “The grant of Zager increases our strategic exploration holdings across the highly prospective Arabian Nubian Shield of northern Ethiopia to over 877 km 2 . The company selected the licence based on our in-house remote sensing study, which included an extensive review of historical geological data. These highlighted Zager’s geological prospectivity and identified

numerous artisanal alluvial gold workings. “Zager is underlain by an almost identical geological terrane to that of the company’s Daro project, located 80 km to the east and where the company has rapidly discovered a number of encouraging copper and gold targets. The geology of this region hosts the Bisha mine, owned by Zinjin Mining, and the Asmara project, owned by Sichuan Road & Bridge Mining Investment Development Corp in Eritrea, approximately 135 km north and north-east of Zager respectively. Zager is also just 10 km north-west of the Harvest VMS project, which is being advanced by TSX-V-listed East Africa Metals Inc. “Our field team will commence recon- naissance exploration shortly and we look forward to updating shareholders on results in due course.” 

14  MODERN MINING  June 2019