Worker killed in underground accident at an Ivanhoe copper mine in Africa

TORONTO – Canadian miner Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. says a worker was killed Sunday at its Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ivanhoe says the fatality occurred underground while a contractor’s employee was moving a drilling rig at the Kakula north workings.

It says the senior management team is working with government authorities on an investigation of the accident.

The Kamoa-Kakula project is a joint venture in which Ivanhoe Mines and Zijin Mining Group each hold 39.6 per cent and the DRC government owns 20 per cent.

The US$1.3-billion Kakula copper mine is to be the first of multiple mining areas at the project, with initial copper concentrate production scheduled for the third quarter of 2021.

Ivanhoe has said the mine will have one of the smallest environmental footprints in the world in terms of water, electrical energy, tailings and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of copper produced.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:IVN)