Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula produced 112,009 tonnes of copper in Q2 2025
- ▪ Construction of Kamoa-Kakula’s Project 95 is approximately 50% complete and on schedule for completion in Q1 2026.
- ▪ Kipushi concentrator milled a record 153,342 tonnes of ore in Q2 2025, producing near-record 41,788 tonnes of zinc.
- ▪ Platreef on schedule for first production in Q4 2025.
Ivanhoe Mines’ Executive Co-Chair Robert Friedland, and President and Chief Executive Officer Marna Cloete has announced the company’s Q2 production results and an update on operational and project activities.
During the second quarter, Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1, 2, and 3 concentrators milled a total 3.62 million tonnes of ore, producing 112,009 tonnes of copper, representing an 11% year-on-year increase.
As previously guided, “Stage One” dewatering activities have been in place and operating to plan as of 2nd June 2025. Water levels on the eastern side of the Kakula Mine have decreased modestly ahead of “Stage Two” dewatering activities from next month. The five, procured high-capacity, submersible “Stage Two” dewatering pumps are currently undergoing factory assembly in China and are expected to be air-freighted to site within the coming weeks.
In early June, mining on the western side of the Kakula mine restarted. By mid-June, the mining rate had ramped up to 300,000 tonnes per month (3.6 million tonnes on an annualised basis), with grades ranging from 3% to 4% copper. As a result, since mid-June, the combined processing rate of the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators ramped up to approximately 670,000 tonnes per month (8 million tonnes per annum on an annualised basis).
Underground development of a new mining area, located on the far eastern side of the Kakula Mine, has recently commenced. The development of the two new access drives will be conducted from existing underground infrastructure.
Founder and Co-Chairman Robert Friedland commented:
“We commend the hard work and dedication of our management team, mining and engineering crews at Kamoa-Kakula, who continue to work tirelessly to turn around operations at Kakula.
“Operational recovery plans are well underway at Kamoa-Kakula following the decisive and proactive actions undertaken by management in response to the seismic activity first announced on May 20. Safety of our employees and contractors remains our top priority at Kamoa-Kakula, and we are now systematically and judiciously increasing development activities to increase the supply of high-grade, fresh ore to the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators from mining areas on the western side of the Kakula ore body. We expect to return to mining areas grading approximately 5% copper on the western side of Kakula towards the end of the year, which will drive a further improvement in operating results and efficiency.
“Meanwhile, we have commenced development towards a new high-grade mining area on the far eastern side of Kakula, which is expected to provide additional high-grade ore by Q2 2026. We also expect to transport excess ore from the Kamoa and Kansoko mines, which continue to outperform on all metrics, to further augment feed of fresh material to the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators as soon as possible.
“Dewatering efforts of the Kakula Mine are proceeding to plan, which will provide us access to assess additional high-grade ore from the affected workings that can be safely mined to feed the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators.
“We also commend our management team at Kipushi for a strong quarterly operating performance. Kipushi is now well on track as one of the world’s largest, highest-grade, and greenest major zinc mines. Lastly, but certainly not least, we are extremely excited for first production at Platreef later this year, which will set the stage for a phased expansion that is set to position the operation as the world’s largest, and lowest-cost producer of platinum-group metals, nickel, copper, and gold. Given the current rally in platinum-group metals prices and the rising interest in these metals, we firmly believe Platreef is positioned to emerge at the right moment in the cycle to deliver exceptional returns for our shareholders.”
The heat-up of Kamoa-Kakula’s state-of-the-art, 500,000-tonne-per-annum direct-to-blister copper smelter is expected to start in September 2025, with the first production of 99.7%-pure copper anodes anticipated in October 2025.
