Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kakula rebound: production, smelter and energy notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula complex in the DRC lifted third-quarter copper output to 76,401 tonnes of saleable products, including 68,188 tonnes of concentrate, as underground mining rates rose 30% to over 700,000 tonnes per month following new box-cut access at Kamoa 1 and the start of stoping. The on-site 500,000 tpa smelter is running at 60% capacity, producing copper anodes and an annualised 480,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid sold at about $900/t to Copperbelt leach operations, while a 60 MW hybrid solar-plus-battery plant has cut diesel generator use by roughly 40%. Ivanhoe kept 2026 copper guidance at 290,000–310,000 tonnes but expects to land near the lower end, with 43,000 tonnes of copper in inventory and Kipushi zinc concentrate output up 10% to 77,147 tonnes.
Technical Brief
- Underground mining capacity now approximates 8.5 Mtpa, driven by extra crews and new Kamoa 1 box-cut access.
- Q3 2026 copper concentrate output of 68,188 t compares with 61,134 t in Q2 2026 and 71,266 t in Q3 2025.
- Development over the next 15 months targets long-term access drives and mine services ahead of full production stoping.
- Smelter quarterly sulphuric acid output of 118,638 t equates to ~480,000 tpa at current operating rates.
- Kamoa-Kakula held about 43,000 t of contained copper in inventory at Q3 2026 quarter-end.
- Kipushi zinc mine delivered 77,147 t of zinc concentrate in Q3, a 10% quarter-on-quarter increase.
- The 60 MW hybrid solar-plus-battery plant is described as Africa’s largest hybrid solar installation at a mine site.
Our Take
The 60% smelter operating rate at Kamoa-Kakula, alongside a sulphuric acid price of about $900/t, suggests near-term upside for Ivanhoe Mines if power stability allows higher utilisation, as acid by-product revenues are unusually supportive at current DRC Copperbelt pricing levels.
The 40% cut in diesel generator use at Kamoa-Kakula, tied to a 60 MW hybrid solar facility, builds directly on the August 2026 item about CrossBoundary Energy’s 30 MW baseload solar system, signalling that this copper complex is becoming a flagship case study in our sustainability-tagged coverage for large African mines de-risking grid power with renewables.
Kipushi’s 10% zinc output increase here follows the record monthly zinc concentrate performance reported in June 2026, indicating that the DRC operation is consolidating into a stable high-grade producer at the same time Ivanhoe is scaling copper in the Makoko District, which diversifies the company’s exposure across copper and zinc in our database of critical minerals plays.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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