Ivanhoe maintains zinc guidance with early completion of debottlenecks

Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) says the debottlenecking program at its Kipushi zinc mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo was recently completed both ahead of schedule and under budget, placing it on track to achieve its production guidance for the remaining of 2025.

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 JV brought the mine back into production in June 2024, targeting 278,000 tonnes of production over its first five years. To achieve this target, it planned a nine-month debottlenecking program to increase the concentrator’s processing capacity by 20% from 800,000 to 960,000 tonnes per annum.

Engineering work on the debottlenecking program began in September 2024. Construction works were completed earlier this month, following a second and final concentrator shutdown to commission the newly installed equipment.

During this shutdown period, Ivanhoe’s team also made upgrades to the dense media separation (DMS) circuit to improve equipment availability. The company reported last year that excessive fine material in the ore feed was causing blockages in the DMS circuit, which led to frequent unscheduled shutdowns. With these new upgrades, Ivanhoe notes that the DMS circuit availability has increased notably from approximately 70% to 96%, boosting concentrator recoveries to over 90%.

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.

Evident improvements

Due to both improved concentrator throughput rates and DMS availability, multiple records have been achieved since the completion of the debottlenecking program, the company adds.

In the seven days following the August shutdown, a record of 5,545 tonnes of zinc in concentrate were produced, equivalent to an annual production rate of approximately 290,000 tonnes. Sustaining this run rate, Ivanhoe says, would make Kipushi the world’s fourth-largest zinc mining operation.

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

Following the completion of the debottlenecking initiatives, Ivanhoe’s management is expecting a “significant” increase in the rate of zinc production for the remainder of the year, and is keeping Kipushi’s 2025 production guidance unchanged at between 180,000 and 240,000 tonnes.

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

Offtakes in place

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 $20 million.

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

Shares of Ivanhoe Mines traded 3% lower on Wednesday morning, giving it a market capitalization of C$15.8 billion ($11.4 billion).