Ivanhoe Feathers Kamoa Nest with More Drill Discoveries

Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) has announced it’s expanded the copper mineralization at its Kamoa-Kakula project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Drilling at the project has been continuing through from the third quarter of 2018, with the company saying it’s successfully delineated two new continuous corridors of shallow copper mineralization containing “high-grade copper.”

The mineralization is located at the Kamoa North prospect of the project, which it owns 39.6 percent of in joint venture with Zijin Mining (HKEX:2899), and the company says that drilling will continue further west onto land 100-percent owned by Ivanhoe Mines.

“The newly delineated copper corridors occur on the western flank of the un-mineralized Kamoa Dome at Kamoa North,” said the press release.

“The most significant corridor trends north and south for more than nine kilometres before swinging to the northwest and is projected to continue onto the adjacent Western Foreland exploration licences that are 100-percent-owned by Ivanhoe Mines. The second corridor trends west-southwest, away from the Kamoa Dome and toward the West Scarp Fault, over a distance of three to four kilometres.”

Co-chairman of Ivanhoe Robert Friedland said that the exploration success of the drill program gives the company more options for planning at Kamoa-Kakula, and also “bode well for the potential for further success right next door” at Western Foreland, where the Makoko copper discovery was announced early last month.

Ivanhoe already holds up the Kamoa-Kakula project as one of the largest copper discoveries in the world, and now says its new discoveries will inform an updated mineral resource area for Kamoa North in 2019.

“The discovery of these new, high-grade zones at Kamoa North clearly demonstrate Kamoa-Kakula’s remarkable potential to significantly increase the project’s current copper resources,” said Friedland.

He added that Ivanhoe and Zijin were committed to fast-tracking the commencement of mining operations at Kamoa-Kakula with, an initial focus on the Kakula area, which would have an initial mining rate of six million tonnes per year, and the capacity to increase production to 18 million tonnes annually.

Drilling is set to continue in efforts to increase the size of the defined mineralization area at both the Kamoa and Kakula discoveries, and the company said that a prefeasibility study for Kakula mine is expected to be completed early next year.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Ivanhoe enjoyed a modest 5.65 percent rise in value on Wednesday (November 14), closing at C$2.58.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Scott Tibballs, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.