- Ivanhoe Mines signed a term sheet for transporting minerals from its copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- The company’s leadership signed the agreement that outlines the key terms for a reserved capacity agreement for transporting mineral products from the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex along the Lobito Atlantic Railway Corridor
- Kamoa-Kakula will have the right to transport a minimum of 120,000 tonnes and a maximum of 240,000 tonnes per annum of blister-anode or concentrate along the corridor
- Ivanhoe Mines last traded at C$14.08 per share
Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) signed a term sheet for transporting minerals from its copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
During the 2024 Mining Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in South Africa, the company’s leadership signed the agreement that outlines the key terms for a reserved capacity agreement for transporting mineral products from the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex along the Lobito Atlantic Railway Corridor to port in Angola.
After a ramp-up year in 2024, the term sheet outlines a minimum period for the agreement of five years commencing in 2025. Kamoa-Kakula will have the right to transport a minimum of 120,000 tonnes and a maximum of 240,000 tonnes per annum of blister-anode or concentrate along the corridor. Kamoa-Kakula is expected to yield 650,000 tonnes of copper in Q4 2024.
The team explained the costs of exporting mineral products along the corridor are expected to be cheaper than the current market price for trucking via the existing export routes. The rates are anticipated to reduce further as volumes transported along the line increase.
Map of export routes currently used by Kamoa-Kakula in red, as well as the Lobito Corridor route in orange. Logistics costs currently account for roughly 30 per cent of Kamoa-Kakula’s total cash costs (C1), due to the long in-land distances travelled by road for exports to reach port. (Source: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.)
“The transformative economic corridor will unlock more copper projects due to the lower logistical costs. Cheaper logistics increase the amount of economically recoverable copper across the copperbelt, as cut-off grades can be lowered,” Ivanhoe Mines’ founder and executive co-chairman, Robert Friedland, said in a news release. “This makes a significant impact on discoveries made in the DRC, such as the recent high-grade and open-ended Kitoko copper discovery in the Western Foreland, where we are stepping up exploration activities this year to find more ultra-green copper metal. Kitoko is located only 30 kilometres from the existing rail line.”
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. has three projects in Southern Africa; its Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the DRC, the construction of the tier-one Platreef palladium-rhodium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold project in South Africa; and the restart of the historic ultra-high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the DRC.
Ivanhoe Mines last traded at C$14.08 per share. The stock has gained more than 17 per cent year-over-year and nearly 400 per cent over the past five years.
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