Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN, OTCQX: IVPAF) announced on Tuesday that the first ore was fed into the Phase 3 concentrator at the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

According to the company, the first ore marks the completion of construction of the Phase 3 concentrator, which has been achieved months ahead of schedule and on budget.

The first concentrate is expected in early June, while ramp-up to commercial production is targeted for early in the third quarter.

“Given the outperformance of Kamoa-Kakula’s operations to date, including higher than expected throughput and recoveries at the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators, we are now studying options to boost copper production towards our next goal of 800,000 tonnes per annum … a production rate that would propel the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex towards being one of the two largest copper producers on our planet,” Ivanhoe Mines’ Founder and Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland said in a statement.

“We are now also studying options to accelerate the Phase 4 expansion at Kamoa-Kakula to target a throughput rate of at least 20 million tonnes annually,” Friedland added.

Shares of Ivanhoe Mines were up by 3.75% by 12:30 p.m. EDT on the back of the news release. The Vancouver-based copper miner has a market capitalization of C$25.96 billion ($19.03bn).

Source: MINING.COM – Read More