The Kamoa-Kakula concession, which includes the three Kamoa Copper (Kamco) mining licences, is huge. It covers 400km2, 25km west of Kolwezi, in Lualaba (South). Is it a lunar landscape? No, because the mining sites are separated from each other by shrubby savannahs that colour the horizon green.
Probable reserves at this copper mega-complex are estimated at 233m tonnes of crude ore grading 4.46% copper, or 10.4m tonnes of contained copper, according to Olivier Binyingo, vice president of public relations for Ivanhoe Mines in DRC. This is a jackpot for Kamco, whose capital is held by Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), China’s Zijin Mining (39.6%), British-Hong Kong Crystal River Global Ltd (0.8%) and the Congolese state (20%).
The complex’s development is done in stages. The first stage involved constructing the Kakula and Kansoko mines, as well as a first concentrator with a processing
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