Friedland confident Congo copper mine will be world’s second-largest

Billionaire Robert Friedland, founder and executive chairman of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN), said Wednesday his Chinese-backed copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo “definitely”  has the potential to become the world’s second-largest mine of the red metal.

“Kamoa-Kakula will become the world’s second-largest copper mine with peak annual production of more than 700,000 tonnes of copper metal,” Friedland said in a release announcing the results of an independent pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the project.

The mining veteran, who made his fortune from the Voisey’s Bay nickel project in Canada in the 1990s, said the capacity of the project’s first phase, estimated in 6 million tonnes of ore a year, could later be tripled.

Initial mine grades, the PFS shows, will average 6.8% copper and production at Kamoa-Kakula could starts in early 2021. First, Friedland needs to raise more than $1.1 billion, but he said he’s already in talks with China-based financial institutions.

“The mine is getting built,” Friedland said. “The first operation will be able to finance two further mines and a smelter (…) That is mind-boggling and we’ve never seen that before.”

Ivanhoe has been working on Kamoa-Kakula for ten years with its Chinese joint-venture partner Zijin Mining — which acquired a stake in Ivanhoe Mines in 2015 through a wholly-owned subsidiary — and the Congolese government. The project is also backed by China’s state-owned Citic Metal, , Ivanhoe’s largest shareholder.

More to come…

The post Friedland confident Congo copper mine will be world’s second-largest appeared first on MINING.com.

from MINING.com http://bit.ly/2RKYYa2