KOLWEZI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, 14 APRIL 2022 – Kamoa Copper has set a new production record in the first quarter of 2022, with 55,602 tonnes of copper in concentrate produced. Kamoa Copper milled 1.08 million tonnes of ore during the quarter at an average feed grade of 5.91% copper.

On 7 April 2022, Kamoa Copper’s Phase 2, 3.8 million-tonne-per-annum (Mtpa) concentrator plant successfully declared commercial production, and on 8 April achieved a new daily production record with 25,126 tonnes milled, and 1,202 tonnes of copper produced.

First ore was introduced into the Phase 2 milling circuit on 21 March 2022, and the first copper concentrate produced four months ahead of the originally planned development schedule. With a design throughput of 3.8 Mtpa of ore, the Phase 2 concentrator plant is a mirror image of the Phase 1 plant.

Due to the early commissioning of the Phase 2 concentrator plant, Kamoa Copper will be able to meet the upper end of its 2022 copper production guidance of 290,000 to 340,000 tonnes.

Over the past six months, the Phase 1 plant has consistently exceeded design ore throughput by approximately 10% – 15%. The Phase 2 concentrator plant has also consistently exceeded its design throughput capacity over the first 17 days of production and continues to perform at similar throughput and recovery rates as the Phase 1 concentrator.

Kamoa Copper’s previously announced de-bottlenecking program is progressing on schedule. The program will see Kamoa Copper increase the combined design processing capacity of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrator plants by approximately 21% to 9.2 Mtpa, up from 7.6 Mtpa. By Q2 2023, the de-bottlenecking program will have increased copper output from Kamoa Copper’s two phases to over 450,000 tonnes per annum, positioning Kamoa Copper as the world’s fourth largest copper producer.

Mark Farren, Kamoa Copper’s CEO, commented: “The Phase 2 concentrator has been successfully commissioned in record time. We can expect to see a doubling of copper output for the remainder of this year, as well as further increases into 2023 as the de-bottlenecking program is executed. It has been wonderful to see how quickly Phase 2 reached commercial production, as our team leveraged prior learnings and experience from Phase 1.

“Our project team’s focus now will be firmly on Phase 3 execution. We intend to deliver the Phase 3 project once again on time, and on budget. We are proud of what our people have achieved in a very short space of time – and are equally determined to reach the next milestones along a similar trajectory”.

The Phase 3 expansion is on track, with detailed design, budgeting, and engineering well advanced. The Pre-Feasibility Study for Phase 3 is expected to be announced during the third quarter of this year.

First copper production from Phase 3 is expected in Q4 2024.

Download PDF Version: Click Here