Kipoi Mine

The Kipoi Mine is a copper mine in Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with an inferred 306,000 tonnes of copper in high-grade ore.[1]

Kipoi Mine
Location
Kipoi Mine
ProvinceKatanga Province
CountryDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Coordinates11°12′52″S 27°03′26″E
Production
ProductsCopper
Owner
CompanyTiger Resources, Gécamines
Websitewww.tigerez.com

Ownership

Kipoi Mine is a joint venture between Tiger Resources (60%) and the state-owned Gécamines (40%). It was planned to start generating revenue in 2011.[1] In June 2011, Tiger Resources said they were negotiating to acquire a higher share of the operation from Gécamines.[2]

Development

The Kipoi Mine property covers 5,500 hectares (14,000 acres). Actual mineral reserves with 3.35% copper or more are 2.68 Mt containing 7.0% copper, 0.2% cobalt and 4.5 g/t silver. Plans included installing a plant with crushing, scrubbing and heavy media separation (HMS) equipment to produce 120,000 tonnes of 25% copper concentrates annually. Two shaft furnaces would produce 32,000 tonnes annually of black copper ingots at 95% to 98% copper.[3] Tiger Resources invested more than $60 million to start the mine.[2]

Production

The target is to reach a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year of copper metal.[3] By June 2011 Tiger was producing 25% copper concentrate at a rate of 130,000 metric tons a year.[2] The company was considering using $250 million from cash flow to build a Solvent Extraction Electrowinning (SXEW) copper cathode plant, with capacity of 50,000 tons per year.[2] In September 2011 the company announced that the SXEW study had proved positive at current copper prices, and the plant would start operation in mid-2014, initially processing residues from the HMS plant.[4] In October 2011 Tiger Resources slowed extraction of ore, since there was a stockpile with three month's supply.[5]

References
  1. "Fact Sheet" (PDF). Tiger Resources. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  2. Franz Wild (Jun 24, 2011). "Trafigura's Tiger Seeks to Raise Stake in Congo Copper Mine". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  3. "Kipoi". InfoMine. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  4. Esmarie Swanepoel (28 September 2011). "Kipoi scoping study proves profitability - Tiger". Mining Weekly. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  5. "Tiger Resources revises mining schedule as copper stockpile rises". Metal Bulletin. October 18, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
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