• Ivanhoe Mines said total investment in the Kamoa-Kakula copper smelter reached $1.1 billion.
• The figure exceeded the $700 million estimate announced in 2021.
• Power infrastructure, including Inga II rehabilitation, accounted for a significant share of costs.

Ivanhoe Mines said total investment in the new smelter at the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex reached $1.1 billion, as the company announced the first production of copper anodes.

The company linked the start-up of the smelter to the full capital deployment in a statement accompanying the production milestone.

Robert Friedland, founder and executive co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, said the event marked “the culmination of a $1.1 billion investment.”

The $1.1 billion figure exceeded the capital cost estimate Ivanhoe Mines disclosed during the project’s early development stages.

In a statement dated Nov. 18, 2021, Ivanhoe Mines said expected capital expenditure for the smelter stood “in the region of $700 million,” and the company said operating cash flows from Kamoa-Kakula would fund the project.

Ivanhoe Mines did not explicitly state the reasons for the gap between the 2021 estimate and the 2026 investment figure.

However, the $1.1 billion total appeared to include ancillary infrastructure costs, even though the company built the smelter according to the same design outlined in 2021.

Ivanhoe Mines constructed a direct-to-blister smelter with nominal capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year of blister copper, alongside sulfuric acid by-product production and emissions standards aligned with those of the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group.

To enable initial anode production, Ivanhoe Mines not only built the smelter but also installed an uninterruptible power supply system.

The company said the 60-megawatt system could provide up to two hours of instant backup power, protecting the smelter from voltage fluctuations on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s national grid.

In parallel, the company required 50 megawatts of clean electricity to commission the smelter.

To secure that supply, Ivanhoe Mines rehabilitated turbine five at the Inga II hydroelectric dam, which has total installed capacity of 178 megawatts.

Kamoa Copper, owner of the Kamoa-Kakula complex, estimated the investment at $450 million, including ongoing grid modernization works.

This article was initially published in French by Boaz Kabeya

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum