DRC launches Africa’s largest copper smelter

• Canadian firm inaugurates new copper smelter in DRC
• DRC moves from concentrate exporter to value addition
• Ivanhoe Mines projects capacity of 490,000 tons of copper annually

Copper smelting is big business in Africa and launch of the Ivanhoe Mines smelter in the DRC marks a key milestone for the industry and the country as well.

The Canadian owned Ivanhoe Mines have invested in what is now considered to be Africa’s largest and greenest copper smelter and its launch “…signals a decisive shift from being one of Africa’s largest concentrate producers to becoming a major supplier of processed copper to global markets,” says Ivanhoe Mines’ Founder and Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland.

The copper smelter is located at its Kamoa-Kakula mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The launch marks completion of a USD700 million project.

The smelter is expected to boost local value addition moving the DRC from ore exporter to trading of refined copper that will be extracted from the site.

The Kamoa-Kakula mine is estimated to have an annual capacity of 500,000 tons of copper concentrate. With completion and launch of the smelter, the executive says now the goal is to process all Kamoa-Kakula copper inside the DRC.

According to the founder, before completion of this new smelter, the Ivanhoe Mines sent about 35% of all its mined concentrate to the nearby Lualaba smelter, and exported the rest for value addition abroad.

Speaking to press at the launch ceremony, Friedland said the new facility now allows the company to process all the mined concentrate at Kamoa-Kakula right on site.

He further explained that the smelter hass he capacity to produce blister copper, this is an intermediate bi-product that is used to make copper anodes, that the executive says have a purity of Level of 99 percent.

“By comparison, the copper content in the mine’s concentrate is roughly 55 percent,” he told press.

He went on to point out that this new facility allows the miner to strengthen its position along the DRC copper value chain, which means more revenue for DRC as opposed to exporting raw concentrates.

“All future smelter output is already covered under offtake agreements with China’s CITIC Metal and Zijin Mining, as well as Swiss trader Trafigura,” he detailed to press.

According to local media, Ivanhoe Mines Was recently forced to cut its 2025 production projections from the highs of 580,000 tons, down to 420,000 tons. Thee miner explained the cause of the reduced estimates to be ‘due to a seismic incident in May.’

With a bright future ahead, the executive told press that the launch is both symbolic and historic and described  the ceremony as a ritual which he said marks a new age in copper mining across the continent.

“We are passing the torch and representing a transformative change at Kamoa-Kakula from a site where we made our first discovery of high-grade copper in 2008, and now we are moving on to power a facility that will set a new global standard for copper smelting,” he said.

Notably, the launch event was inaugurated by a colourful traditional ceremony  conducted by local community leaders who held special ceremonial rituals at the launch.

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DRC moves from concentrates to copper smelting

Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines, operates three other operations across Southern Africa, these are the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex, the ultra-high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine both of these been in the DRC, and another one the Platreef in South Africa which produces platinum, palladium, nickel, rhodium, gold and copper.

On the ground in the DRC, Kamoa-Kakula’s Managing Director, Annebel Oosthuizen, said “The fire we lit today is the light that will change the future, not just for Kamoa Copper, but for our community, our country, and the African continent.”

He sad the smelter marks yet another milestone not only for the Kamoa-Kakula mine, but the Lualaba Province and the entire DRC mining industry.

“This is a major in the production of clean, sustainable copper, we are moving from deposit mining to an industrial powerhouse,” he said.

According to the Managing Director, the Kamoa-Kakula mine is “…one of the world’s highest-grade, fastest-growing and lowest-carbon copper operations.”

Detailing, he said, completion of its Phase 3 concentrator last year in 2024 increased its potential annual output to around 600,000 tonnes of copper.

“This scale places Kamoa-Kakula among Africa’s largest and most influential copper producers,” he asserted pointing out that the mine produced 437,061 tonnes of copper in 2024.

He went on to explain that the launch of the new smelter now allows Kamoa-Kakula to have a major strategic advantage. He said the smelter gives them the ability to process its own concentrate ores right on-site a fact that means they no longer have to rely  on external smelters.

In his brief to the press, the Managing Director said Kamoa-Kakula now stands out no only for mining high ore grades, for having full on-site processing capacity. He pointed out the fact that other large producers like Zambia have huge and large copper mines but very few smelters That can be compared to the scale or environmental efficiency of the launched Kamoa-Kakula operation.

Summing up, he said the global demand for copper Is growing very fast driven by demand for electric vehicles and renewable energy as well as the ongoing broader energy transition along with the related technologies.

“This means that our mine and this new smelting operation, play an increasingly influential role in global supply of clean copper,” he said.

“For Ivanhoe Mines, this new smelter marks a decisive shift, it moves us from being one of Africa’s largest concentrate producers And firmly sets us as a major supplier of processed copper to global markets,” he concluded.