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The Kipushi zinc-copper-lead-germanium-silver mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s highest-grade zinc mine. Its concentrator commenced production in June 2024, with a debottlenecking programme completed in August 2025 increasing annual ore-processing capacity by 20%, from 800,000 to 960,000 tonnes. The plant uses dense media separation, milling and flotation to produce a high-grade zinc concentrate, with design targets of approximately 96% zinc recovery and an average concentrate grade of 55% zinc.
Average grade over the first five years of production
Capacity per-annum of the zinc concentrator
Kipushi's 2025 zinc production
Measured and Indicated Mineral Zinc Resources
Kipushi’s 2026 zinc production guidance
Kipushi's EBITDA for 2025
Ivanhoe acquired its 68% interest in the Kipushi Project in November 2011, through Kipushi Holding which is 100%-owned by Ivanhoe Mines. The balance of 32% in the Kipushi Project is held by the DRC state-owned mining company, Gécamines. As per the updated joint venture agreement signed in late 2023, Gécamines’ ownership increased to 38% in Q1 2025.
Kipushi is a high-grade, underground operation located adjacent to the town of Kipushi in the DRC, approximately 30 kilometres southwest of Lubumbashi in the Central African Copperbelt.
Historically, the mine produced approximately 60 million tonnes of ore grading 11% zinc and 7% copper between 1924 and 1993. Ivanhoe Mines and its joint-venture partner, Gécamines, redeveloped the historic mine, with commercial production resuming in 2024.
Kipushi produced a record 203,168 tonnes of zinc in concentrate in 2025. Following the completion of a concentrator debottlenecking programme that increased annual ore-processing capacity by 20%, to 960,000 tonnes, production continued to rise in 2026. Full-year 2026 production guidance is 240,000 to 290,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate.
The operation is centred on the exceptionally high-grade Big Zinc and Southern Zinc orebodies. The 2022 feasibility study outlined 11.8 million tonnes of Measured and Indicated zinc-rich Mineral Resources grading 35.34% zinc, alongside additional copper-rich Mineral Resources. Ongoing underground development and exploration support access to the deposit and its longer-term growth potential.
Kipushi has a compelling environmental profile. Its exceptionally high ore grades reduce the amount of material that must be mined and processed per tonne of zinc produced, while access to the DRC’s hydroelectric power grid further reduces emissions. An independent greenhouse-gas assessment by Skarn Associates identified Kipushi Mine as having the potential for the lowest greenhouse-gas emissions intensity per tonne of zinc produced globally, on a Scope 1 and 2 basis.
Shaft 5
Shaft 5 is planned to be the main production shaft once operations commence, with a maximum hoisting capacity of up to 1.8 Mtpa. The bottom of Shaft 5 provides primary access to the lower levels of the mine, including the Big Zinc orebody, along the 1,150-metre haulage level.
De-bottlenecking program
The debottlenecking program has been successfully completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The program increased concentrator throughput capacity by 20%, from 800,000 to 960,000 tonnes of ore per annum, and has already delivered materially higher zinc production, with multiple new production records achieved following commissioning.
Lowest greenhouse gas emitter
Kipushi will be the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter per tonne of zinc produced. On a Scope 1 and 2 basis (reported from ore to mine gate), Kipushi’s GHG emissions intensity for 2025 is expected to be 0.019 equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of contained zinc produced (t CO2-e / t Zn). This ranks Kipushi near the bottom of the Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions curve.
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