Ivanhoe jumps on exploration results at African mine

The unveiled results included the first hole, KPU040, which drilled the historical Big Zinc zone from the hanging-wall drill drift and intersected high grades of base and precious metals mineralization.

Highlights from those results included 43.0% zinc, 5.5% copper, 244 g/tonne silver, 71 g/tonne germanium and 0.1 g/tonne gold over 70 metres.

Within the same interval, the hole also intercepted an especially rich zone that produced 19.9% zinc, 21.1% copper, 1,573 g/tonne silver, 65 g/tonne germanium and 0.80 g/tonne gold over 9.7 metres.

“[This discovery] confirms our hypothesis that copper zones, which also are rich in precious metals, exist within the deep, unmined portions of the Kipushi Mine. These zones now present new and compelling targets for our ongoing exploration,” said the company’s executive chairman Robert Friedland.

The billionaire mining legend, responsible for the discovery and development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia before Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON:RIO) acquisition, has big plans for the DRC-based Kamoa and Kipushi projects. Last year, he committed $24m in share placing to fund these developments, which make up 83% of the Ivanhoe’s net asset value, especially Kamoa, said to be the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposit.

Source: Google Finance.