Ivanhoe Mines’ Executive Co-Chair Robert Friedland and President & Chief Executive Officer Marna Cloete announced, alongside the company’s first-quarter production results, that Kamoa-Kakula has reached a major turning point following a significant increase in imported hydroelectric power in recent weeks enabling the start-up of the new on-site copper smelter.
Imported hydroelectric power increased by 20 megawatts (MW) to 70 MW in mid-March. Imported hydropower is expected to increase further to 100 MW imminently, representing a 100% increase over recent weeks.
Kamoa-Kakula delivered record production during the last two weeks of March at an annualized rate above its 2025 guidance. The outperformance was also underpinned by strong operating performance from the new Phase 3 concentrator, which delivered record throughput and copper production, exceeding its nameplate design capacity.
“Despite recent volatility in global markets and with virtually all global equities knocked down by panic – and computerized trading algorithms – Ivanhoe Mines has a very strong balance sheet and generates powerful cash flows,” Founder and Co-Chairman Robert Friedland commented. “In addition, we are in a privileged position with Kamoa-Kakula as one of the lowest-cost copper producers in our industry, and we expect our operating costs to decline even further as our state-of-the-art direct-to-blister smelter ramps up this year. The production of 99.7% pure copper anodes will significantly reduce our C1 cash costs due to a more than 50% reduction in transportation costs per unit of contained copper and the enjoyment of by-product sulphuric acid sales – a critical commodity in great demand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s copper industry.
“We are delighted that Kamoa-Kakula’s growing pains, which led to power challenges, are behind us following our successful efforts to secure additional imported hydroelectricity, with more imported hydroelectric power from the Southern Africa Power Pool on its way very soon. We now have in place a long-term energy security program that future-proofs our energy mix as we continue to grow into the very top ranks of the world’s largest copper production complexes.
“We are therefore sufficiently encouraged to inaugurate the startup of our state-of-the-art Kamoa-Kakula smelter, one of the largest and most technologically sophisticated smelters in the world. With the smelter coming online, we will no longer simply be exporting copper concentrate – we will export the world’s greenest copper anodes for the energy transition. As the world wakes up to a generational copper deficit, we have the assets, the people, and the infrastructure to deliver this responsibly sourced and most critical of all metals to world markets.”
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