Ivanhoe Mines Releases Prefeasibility Study For Kamoa Copper Project

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) has released the results of a prefeasibility study for its Kamoa copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study considers the first phase of development at the project, with an annual production rate of 100,000 tonnes of copper with a mine-site cash cost of US$0.75 per pound of copper.
As quoted in the press release, highlights from the study included:

• Annual mine production of 3 Mtpa at an average grade of 3.86% copper over a 24-year mine life, resulting in annual copper production of approximately 100,000 tonnes.
• Initial capital cost, including contingency, is US$1.2 billion, approximately US$200 million lower than estimated in the Kamoa 2013 PEA.
• Life-of-mine average mine-site cash cost is US$0.75/lb of copper.
• After-tax net present value (NPV) at an 8% discount rate of US$986 million.
• After-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 17.2% and a payback period of 4.6 years.
• High-grade copper concentrate with an average grade of 39.2% copper and very low arsenic levels.
• Improvements to the mining method have the potential to reduce average mine site cash cost during the first phase to US$0.61/lb of copper, and improve the after-tax NPV at an 8% discount rate to US$1.182 billion, the IRR to 18.9% and the payback period to 4.3 years.

Ivanhoe Mines Chairman, Robert Friedland, said:

The results of this independent pre-feasibility study confirm the robustness of the Kamoa Copper Project over a wide range of copper prices, with the potential for significant improvement in the results as we move forward on the Feasibility Study. We know of no other copper project in the world that offers the potential of multi-decade, large-scale, mechanized production from a near surface, stratiform deposit grading nearly 4% copper, with the demonstrated potential for further high-grade discoveries nearby, and located close to a major mining centre.

Click here for the full press release.