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Mines/DR Congo

Kamoa-Kakula mine

Kamoa-Kakula mine, DR Congo. Producing, underground, mining copper.

Why Kamoa-Kakula is famous

Underground copper complex in Lualaba, DR Congo. It produced 388,838 t of copper in concentrate in 2025, inside revised guidance. Ivanhoe reported in January 2026 that Kakula's underground workings were being dewatered and mining on the western side had restarted.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 2000 to 2020DRC cobalt boom4

What kind of deposit

Sediment-hosted stratabound copper

Kamoa-Kakula today

Where copper is mined todayMining in DR Congo

Where next

People

Discovered byRobert FriedlandIvanhoe's Kamoa find was called the DRC's largest copper discovery in a century.3

Mines

Same kind of depositKamoto Copper Company (KCC) / Katanga Mining ComplexBoth are DR Congo copper mines: Kamoa-Kakula made 388,838 t in 2025.1

Events

Led toDRC cobalt boomRead what happened near Kamoa-Kakula: DRC cobalt boom.1

Places

Located inKolweziKamoa-Kakula is about 24 km from Kolwezi.1

Deposit types

An example ofSediment-hosted stratabound copperKamoa-Kakula belongs to the sediment-hosted stratabound copper family of deposits.5

Sources

  1. 2025 production results and 2026 guidance, 15 January 2026 Ivanhoe Mines
  2. data/minerals/operations.csv Prospector Trails (internal)
  3. Robert Friedland Canadian Mining Hall of Fame
  4. China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and artisanal cobalt mining from 2000 through 2020 (publication page) US Geological Survey
  5. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi by Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pictures: Escondida Mine, Chile, NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).