making the newsAssays from a further 43 holes at the project in the Democratic Republic of Congo have defined a high-grade mineralised zone at Kakula West measuring 1km with a 2.9km strike length.
High-grade intercepts from Kakula West include 26.05m of 4.37% copper and 9.62m at 7.57% and highlights from drilling at Kakula include 6.16m at 9.2% copper from 578m.
“The discovery remains open in virtually all directions, so the real question is, how much bigger and better is Kakula going to get?” executive chairman Robert Friedland said.
An accelerated drilling programme is underway and the company expects enough drilling by October to define resources over the entire strike length of the Kakula discovery which now spans 12km, a 60% increase on the area covered in its
May resource estimate which took the project’s total indicated resource to about 1 billion tonnes grading 3.02%.
CEO Lars-Eric Johansson said the company was working on a 6 million tonne per annum pre-feasibility study for Kakula and the development plans would be assessed and amended as the project advanced.
“Ultimately, we see the potential for an additional mining centre at Kakula West, which could increase the ultimate mining rate at Kamoa-Kakula to at least 18Mtpa, through a number of phased expansions,” he said.
Both Ivanhoe and Zijin Mining hold an indirect 39.6% stake in Kamoa-Kakula, Crystal River Global holds 0.8% and the DRC government has 20%.
Shares in Ivanhoe lost 1c yesterday to C$4.60 but are up more than 81% year-to-date.