3 "meh" economic mines
Kipushi is the richest Zinc mine in the world. Look at the copper grade and see that it is very high. brownfield development so capital costs very reasonable.
Platreef is slated to be the largest preciious metal mine in the world after the 2nd expansion. Costs for its metals in the lowest quartile.
K&K is the largest undeveloped copper mine in the world and of the giant mines the one with the highest grade. The ore body is relatively shallow and the copper is ultra low in arsenic.
Despite the above stated attributes, economically they are all just "meh" some say. Nothing to get excited about. Lets assume that assessment is correct. Is that a death blow for IVN and its shareholders. Not in my mind. If these 3 projects are borderline, then no mines are going to be built, and that is very good news for shareholders of IVN. These 3 mines are being built as I type(and as been said the best mines always get financing). Commodity prices are influenced by demand and supply, if there are no new mines being built then supply of the commodity will be reduced and prices will rise, good news for mines in production. In fact I could argue that IVN would be better off if copper prices stayed low until 2019.