Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project

Acid Plant Database July 9, 2025

Owner	Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project
Location	Lualaba Democratic Republic of Congo
Background	Joint Venture 38.6% Ivanhoe Mines 39.6% Zijin Mining Group 0.8% Crystal River Global Group 20.0% DRC
Website	www.ivanhoemines.com www.zijinmining.com
Plant	-
Coordinates*	53' 10" S, 25° 10' 59" E (site)
Type of Plant	Metallurgical
Gas Source	Copper Smelter Direct to Blister Flash Furnace
Plant Capacity	2,500 MTPD 783,000 MTPA
SA/DA	Pre-Converter 3/1 DA
Emissions	>99.9% conversion
Status	Construction
Year Built	2024
Technology	Flash Furnace: Metso-Outotec Acid Plant: MECS
Contractor	Nerin Engineering
Remarks	DynaWave based gas cleaning system Sodium Silicate System
Pictures
General	-
References	-
News	January 9, 2024 - The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex (Kamoa-Kakula), a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin Mining Group and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has partnered with Elessent Clean Technologies (Elessent) to install a new 2,500 metric tonne per day (MTPD) smelter off-gas MECS^® sulfuric acid plant. In conjunction with global EPC partner, China Nerin Engineering Co. Ltd. (NERIN), the new acid plant will be part of a new 500,000-tonnes-per-annum direct-to-blister flash copper smelter that is under construction at Kamoa-Kakula, as part of its Phase 3 expansion. Upon completion of the Phase 3 expansion, Kamoa-Kakula is projected to be the fourth largest copper operation globally. “At Kamoa-Kakula we aim to set a new industry standard by being the greenest major copper mine in the world. It helps that DRC not only has an incredible mineral endowment, but also has an abundance of clean hydroelectricity to power its mining industry. However, we also need the right technology to extract the copper in a sustainable way. By using the MECS^® acid plant design and its incorporated technologies, our new plant helps achieve our path to net zero,” said David Mitchell, Kamoa-Kakula’s Senior Project Manager for the smelter project. The MECS^® sulfuric acid process incorporates state-of-the-art technologies, such as the MECS^® pre-conversion technology and the MECS^® DynaWave^® gas cleaning technology. DynaWave^® scrubbers, the gold standard in gas cleaning applications, clean and condition the upstream off gas of the smelting furnace at the sulfuric acid plant. The MECS^® pre-conversion technology is a novel approach for processing off-gas streams with elevated sulfur-dioxide concentrations while consuming significantly less power. “Kamoa-Kakula is one of the world’s fastest-growing major copper operations. Partnering with NERIN on the mine’s greenfield smelter complex is very exciting. It is a great honor to work with the owners of what is anticipated to be one of the greenest major copper operations on the planet,” said Eli Ben-Shoshan, CEO, Elessent Clean Technologies. For decades, copper has been essential in industries like civil and building construction, machinery, and power transmission. Recently, however, copper demand has seen a steady increase due to its position as a critical metal in the energy transition, which includes electric vehicle (EV) technology. In fact, copper is one of the most vital metals in the energy transition and the shift to EVs. Copper is essential throughout the entire EV value chain, including use in everything from EV manufacturing to charging stations and supporting infrastructure. Because of the metal’s high durability, high conductivity, and efficiency, it has become indispensable to the industry. The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex has been in commercial operations since July 2021. The operation is currently undergoing its Phase 3 expansion, which will increase copper production to over 600,000 tons of copper per year from Q3 2024. November 18, 2021 - Ivanhoe Mines has awarded a 500,000 tonnes per annum direct-to-blister copper smelting plant contract for the Kamoa-Kakula Complex to China Nerin Engineering. The smelter will be the most extensive of its kind in Africa and one of the largest single-line flash smelters in the world. The $700 million project is expected to speed along Ivanhoe’s ambition to produce environmentally sustainable ‘green copper’ to feed into the emerging global energy transition. The smelter, supplied by Finland’s Metso Outotec, has been sized to process most of the copper concentrate forecast to be produced by Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1, 2 and 3 concentrators. The smelter is expected to be built concurrently with the project’s Phase 3 mine and concentrator expansion over the next three years and the upgrading of turbine five at the Inga II hydropower complex. Ivanhoe says an onsite smelting facility has compelling cost and environmental benefits, including reducing the volume of copper concentrate shipped from the mine by about 50%-plus and the associated logistics costs, export taxes and concentrate treatment charges. The smelter also will produce sulphuric acid as a by-product, creating a new revenue stream for Kamoa Copper. According to Ivanhoe, there is a strong demand and market for sulphuric acid in the DRC to recover copper from oxide ores. Kamoa-Kakula currently is producing an extremely high-grade, clean copper concentrate containing approximately 55% copper and low levels of arsenic by world standards – about 0.01%. Approximately 35% of Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1 concentrate is sent to the local Lualaba smelter for processing into blister copper ingots – containing approximately 99% copper – while the remainder is transported via trucks and ships to international smelters for treatment. Kakula is projected to be the world’s highest-grade major copper mine, with an initial mining rate of 3.8 million tonnes per annum at an estimated average feed grade of more than 6% copper over the first five years of operations and 5.9% copper over the initial 10 years of operations. Phase 1 is expected to produce about 200,000 tonnes of copper per year, while the Phase 2 expansion is forecast to increase production to about 400,000 tonnes of copper annually. Kamoa Copper is on track to complete the Phase 2 expansion in the second quarter of 2022. Based on independent benchmarking, the project’s phased expansion scenario to 19 million tonnes per annum would position Kamoa-Kakula as the world’s second-largest copper mining complex, with peak annual copper production of more than 800,000 tonnes. The operation yielded its maiden profit in the first full quarter of operations. On November 15, the company reported a profit of $85.4 million for the three months to September 30. The Kamoa-Kakula project is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the Government of the DRC (20%).

MTPD - Metric Tonne per Day STPD - Short Ton per Day
MTPA - Metric Tonne per Annum STPA - Short Ton per Annum
SA - Single Absorption
DA - Double Absorption

* Coordinates can be used to locate plant on Google Earth


Sulphuric Acid on the Web^TM	Technical Manual	DKL Engineering, Inc.