Ivanhoe maintains DRC zinc forecast, hits records

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN; US-OTC: IVPAF) says a program to remove constraints at its Kipushi zinc mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo was recently completed ahead of schedule and under budget, placing it on track to achieve its production forecast for the rest of 2025.

Management is expecting a “significant” increase in the rate of zinc production, the company said on Wednesday. It’s keeping Kipushi’s 2025 output estimate unchanged at between 180,000 and 240,000 tonnes. Record zinc in concentrate output over seven days this month hit 5,545 tonnes, an annual production rate of 290,000 tonnes. Sustaining this run rate would make Kipushi the world’s fourth-largest zinc mining operation.

Engineering work on the debottlenecking program began in September 2024. Construction works were completed this month following a second and final concentrator shutdown to commission newly installed equipment. Ivanhoe’s team also upgraded the dense media separation (DMS) circuit to improve equipment availability to 96% from 70%, boosting concentrator recoveries to more than 90%.

Kipushi, a joint venture between Ivanhoe (62%) and Congo’s state-owned miner Gécamines (38%), is the world’s highest-grade zinc mine. It first went into production over a century ago, until operations were placed on care and maintenance during the 1990s. The debottlenecking program targeted 278,000 tonnes of annual output within five years of the plant’s June 2024 restart. It planned to increase the concentrator’s annual processing capacity by 20% to 960,000 tonnes from 800,000.

Shares of Ivanhoe Mines fell 4% to $11.51 in Toronto on Wednesday morning, giving it a market capitalization of $15.6 billion.

Upgrades 

Further back-up electrical upgrades continue with the installation of an additional six megawatts in backup generator capacity, which is expected to be commissioned and available in the fourth quarter. The mine’s new concentrator throughput rates and DMS availability helped it set records since completing the program.

These included 1,052 tonnes of zinc concentrates produced over 24 hours in mid-August, equivalent to an annual production rate of over 340,000 tonnes of zinc, after accounting for availability. 

Last month, the company signed a three-year offtake agreement with Mercuria for up to one-third of the remaining unallocated zinc concentrate produced at Kipushi. In addition to the offtake, the Swiss trading group also provided Ivanhoe a loan of US$20 million ($27.6 million).

Offtake agreements for the other two-thirds are already in place with CITIC Metal of Hong Kong and Trafigura Asia Trading of Singapore.

Elsewhere in the DRC, the company has cut its 2025 copper production guidance after seismic activity in May caused severe flooding at its Kamoa-Kakula mine.