Kamoa Copper Mine in the DRC Produces 76,400 Tonnes of Copper in Q3, Up 19% Quarter-on-Quarter

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 8, Ivanhoe Mines released production data for the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the third quarter of 2026. The project's saleable copper products contained 76,401 tonnes of copper in the quarter, an increase of approximately 19% from 64,328 tonnes in the second quarter. Of this total, the on-site smelter produced 61,506 tonnes of anode copper, the nearby Lualaba smelter produced 2,347 tonnes of blister copper under a tolling arrangement, and there were an additional 5,645 tonnes of copper contained in slag concentrate and 6,904 tonnes of copper contained in high-grade copper fines intended for external sale. The company maintained its full-year production guidance of 290,000 to 310,000 tonnes of saleable copper products but expects actual production to be near the lower end of the guidance range.

In the third quarter, mining volume at the Kamoa and Kansoko mining areas increased by approximately 30%, reaching more than 700,000 tonnes per month, equivalent to an annualized mining rate of approximately 8.5 million tonnes. The production increase was mainly driven by additional mining crews, the commissioning of a new mining access at the Kamoa 1 mining area, and the start of stope extraction. The new Kahala access reached the orebody in June, and the new Kansoko Sud access has completed surface portal works, with approximately 590 meters of further development still required to reach the orebody.

In terms of processing, the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators processed a combined 1.82 million tonnes of ore in the third quarter, an increase of approximately 30% from the previous quarter, with a copper recovery rate of 88.9%. The Project 95 technical upgrade at both concentrators was completed in July. The Phase 3 concentrator processed approximately 1.67 million tonnes of ore during the same period, with a copper recovery rate of 86.0%; the Phase 3 operation produced 68,188 tonnes of copper contained in copper concentrate, up from 61,134 tonnes in the second quarter. The company is continuing to adjust the processing flowsheet to reduce the silica content entering the smelting system.

The associated smelter has a designed annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes of copper and is currently operating at approximately 60% of design load. In the third quarter, it produced 118,638 tonnes of high-concentration sulfuric acid, a quarterly production record, with an average net realized price for sulfuric acid sales of approximately US$900 per tonne, roughly double that of the second quarter. The sulfuric acid is mainly sold to copper and cobalt hydrometallurgical plants in the DRC Copperbelt.

The new 60 MW hybrid solar and battery energy storage power supply facility at the mining area completed construction and commissioning in the third quarter and reached full design operating capacity in September. Following commissioning, diesel generator fuel consumption at the mining area decreased by approximately 40% compared with July. Ivanhoe Mines also signed a new power purchase agreement and plans to expand on-site hybrid solar power supply capacity to 120 MW within the next 18 months.

As of the end of the third quarter, copper product inventory at the Kamoa-Kakula mining area was approximately 43,000 tonnes, up from approximately 40,000 tonnes at the beginning of the quarter. The company plans to continue testing, quantity verification, and sales tendering for high-grade copper fines in inventory during the fourth quarter, while advancing underground stope development and optimizing the processing system.