Ivanhoe and China’s CNMC to work together in Africa

This strategic partnership foresees joint activities in production, smelting and logistics.

Both companies are already active in Africa. Ivanhoe is currently developing the Kamoa-Kakula project, also in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the Platreef project in Limpopo, South Africa. 

CNMC launched Congo’s first large-scale copper smelter in January, the Lualaba smelter, which is located 45km from Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kakula project. CNMC is also the majority owner of the Deziwa copper and cobalt mine, which is a joint venture with the country’s state mining company Gécamines.

Robert Friedland, the co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, commented on the new agreement: “Our long-standing relationship with CNMC goes back decades to when Wu Jianchang was the general manager of China National Nonferrous Metals Industry Corporation − a pioneer industrial group specialising in the mining and metallurgy sector.

“Our good friends at CNMC are aware of the enormous challenges of discovering and building a new world-scale copper, nickel, zinc, or platinum-group metals mine”.

Wang Tongzhou, the chairman of CNMC, commented: “I strongly believe that cooperation is the best way to achieving the goals of both companies”.