Milestone copper discovery in DRC augmented with the Platreef project.
The Canadian mining company has made the transmission from a junior exploration company to a mining juggernaut, having made game-changing discoveries over the last decade. Last week the company announced the results of drilling efforts at its Kamoa Copper project, near the mining centre of Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In 2013, the Kamoa project was heralded as the world’s largest, undeveloped, high-grade copper discovery, with Ivanhoe’s exploration team earning the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s Thayer Lindsley International Discovery Award in 2015.
The award annually recognises an individual or a team of geologists credited with a recent significant mineral discovery or series of discoveries anywhere in the world.
Eight new holes were drilled at the Kakula discovery, revealing copper grades that are substantially richer, thicker and more consistent than other known mineralisation elsewhere on the Kamoa project.
Initial metallurgical test results from a sample of drill core from exploration drilling in the Kakula discovery zone achieved copper recoveries of 86% and produced a copper concentrate with an extremely high grade of 53% copper.
Robert Friedland, executive chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, said in a statement last week that the Kakula discovery is a complete game changer in our planning for the development of the Kamoa project.
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