Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland and President and Chief Executive Officer Marna Cloete today provide an operational update on the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, following the temporary suspension of operations at the Kakula underground mine, as first announced by the company on May 20, 2025.
Senior management and a world-class team of geotechnical experts continue to conduct a thorough investigation of the mine to understand the cause and effect of the seismic activity.
Seismic activity at the Kakula underground mine has continued to occur intermittently over the past few days.
Given the recent seismic activity, underground activities were suspended again on Saturday, May 25, 2025, with employees safely brought above ground and mobile equipment removed from the mine workings.
The safety of employees and contractors remains paramount, and zero lost time injuries have been reported.
Preliminary indications are that seismic activity at the Kakula underground could potentially continue for weeks, which would inhibit access to the mine and prolong the temporary suspension of operations at Kakula.
As a result of the impact on underground pumping and electrical infrastructure, to date, there has been an increase in water inflow levels into the Kakula underground mine.
Kamoa Copper, with support from Ivanhoe and Zijin Mining, is currently preparing detailed dewatering plans, including the acquisition of additional pumping equipment to increase pumping capacity and allow for dewatering from surface.
Ivanhoe would like to thank its Chinese partners Zijin and CITIC Metal for their assistance in procuring additional equipment for the dewatering efforts.
Ivanhoe Mines’ President and Chief Executive Officer, Marna Cloete commented:
“I would like to extend my profound thanks to our dedicated workforce, who have shown exceptional resilience and commitment while working under challenging conditions during the recent seismic activity.
The safety of our employees is our highest priority, and it is testament to the professionalism and focus of everyone at Kamoa Copper that we have recorded no injuries in a dynamic environment.
“While underground mining operations are temporarily suspended at Kakula, we are focusing our efforts on maintaining pumping and water management infrastructure, including accelerating procurement for dewatering equipment from surface.
We are working around the clock with the world’s foremost geotechnical experts to establish the cause of the issues we faced and how we will resolve them.
“We maintain significant optionality to maintain Kakula’s concentrator operations from surface stockpiles, or potentially temporarily re-deploy Kakula employees and equipment to Kamoa Mine, which continues uninterrupted.”
Ivanhoe Mines’ Founder and Executive Co-Chairman, Robert Friedland commented:
“We are going to gain wisdom and experience from the events that have unfolded in the past week. Ivanhoe, together with our partner Zijin, is operating in complex, high-grade sedimentary copper systems on a scale not seen before globally.
What has transpired will give us valuable insight into managing geotechnical conditions and maintaining critical pumping infrastructure, which will allow us to future-proof and safely restart mining operations at Kakula … and such learnings will be applied in earnest to our activities at Kamoa and in the Western Forelands.
“I remind readers that SpaceX – today responsible for approximately 90% of total payload launched into space by humanity – did not attain this status without numerous setbacks.
Each setback brought their team new knowledge, making the mission stronger… and so we approach our operations at Kamoa-Kakula with the same mindset. Together we plan to restore operations to be safer and stronger than ever.”
As underground areas are deemed safe for crews to return, the initial focus will be to inspect, repair, and restart pump stations and associated piping, as well as electrical substations and associated cabling.
Remediation work continues in the shallower western sections of the Kakula Mine, where current dewatering rates are approximately 1,000 litres per second (L/s). Kamoa Copper’s engineering team is focused on restoring underground pumping capacity to over 3,000 L/s, which is deemed sufficient to stabilize water levels.
In parallel, the management team intends to install at all of our mines high-capacity pumping systems that can operate from surface as permanent infrastructure.
Surface infrastructure at Kakula, including the Phase 1 and 2 concentrators and direct-to-blister smelter, remains completely unaffected.
The Phase 1 and 2 concentrators are currently processing ore from surface stockpiles.
Mining activities at the Kamoa underground mine and processing at the adjacent Phase 3 concentrator continue to operate normally.
Kamoa-Kakula’s 2025 production and cost guidance, along with the ramp-up schedule for the direct-to-blister smelter, have been withdrawn pending review. Ivanhoe will provide further updates as more information is available.
Ivanhoe and Zijin continue to work collaboratively under a strong partnership at the joint-venture level and are committed to returning Kakula back to production as soon as safely possible.
