Ivanhoe Mines has made major “Tier 1” copper discoveries in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa, chief executive Robert Friedland said on Wednesday.
The Congo discovery was the first such copper find in the central African country since 1906, Friedland told a mining conference in Cape Town. “Tier 1” indicates a very large deposit of high-grade copper ore.
“We found it from our grassroots effort. It's quite an unusual beast. It has no cobalt, for example,” he said. “It's only contaminated copper with a little bit of silver.”
Friedland said further details of both discoveries would be announced soon.
Ivanhoe's massive Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia is one of the world's biggest untapped copper-gold deposits. - Reuters
