Ivanhoe Mines this week announced that the strike length of the shallow, thick, massive copper sulphide mineralisation at Kamoa North that was discovered earlier this year in drill hole DD1450 on the Kamoa-Kakula mining licence, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been significantly extended by assays received from ongoing drilling.

Recent drilling has confirmed that the discovery zone of bonanza-grade copper mineralisation at Kamoa North – the Kamoa North Bonanza zone – is continuous over a strike length of at least 350 m and a width of up to 60 m.

Assays have confirmed copper grades of up to 18.48% over 13.6 m in the new discovery area.

The Kamoa North Bonanza zone represents a new style of copper mineralisation at Kamoa-Kakula, where massive to semi-massive chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite have locally replaced pyrite in the Kamoa Pyritic Siltstone.

Assay results from ten new holes have been received from the Kamoa North drilling area.

“After more than ten years of exploration on the 400 km² Kamoa-Kakula licence area, it is highly encouraging that we are still making new discoveries of thick zones of massive sulphide with copper grades in excess of 18%,” commented Ivanhoe Exploration and Geological senior adviser Dr David Broughton.

He added that the results underscored the “world-class” status of the project, as well as the “outstanding” potential for major new copper discoveries on the company’s 100% Western Foreland exploration licences.

The discovery of the new style of KPS-hosted mineralisation at Kamoa North opens the door for multiple exploration opportunities at Kamoa-Kakula and the adjoining Western Foreland ground.

Three additional drill rigs have been added at Kamoa North, bringing the total to four, to delineate the extent of the discovery and assess its potential to be fast-tracked to production to increase Kamoa-Kakula’s copper grades.

East–west striking fault structures associated with the Kamoa North Bonanza zone can be traced for up to 20 km onto the adjacent Western Foreland exploration licences.

Drilling extends the 9 km corridor of shallow, high-grade copper at the Kamoa Far North discovery to the boundary of Ivanhoe’s Western Foreland licences.