Ivanhoe in talks to route Kipushi zinc to US critical minerals stockpile

Ivanhoe Mines is in advanced talks with Congo's state miner Gécamines and Swiss trader Mercuria to route zinc-rich concentrate from its Kipushi mine to the United States under Washington's newly launched strategic stockpiling scheme, Project Vault.

The discussions follow the White House launch of Project Vault, which Ivanhoe founder and co-executive chairman Robert Friedland attended. The $12bn programme aims to secure long-term supplies of strategic metals, backed by $1.67bn in private capital and a $10bn loan facility from the US Export-Import Bank. Momentum behind the plan has been building in Washington, where senators were set to introduce legislation to reauthorise Export-Import Bank funding for another decade and inject an additional $70bn into the agency to support the critical-minerals agenda.

How the deal would work

Under the proposed arrangement, Mercuria would assign its existing offtake for Kipushi concentrate to Gécamines' trading arm and market additional volumes expected once the mine ramps up further, Ivanhoe said. Gécamines could ultimately handle up to 50% of Kipushi's output, including shipments destined for the US stockpile.

Zinc joins the critical minerals conversation

The talks illustrated how Washington's critical-minerals push, initially focused on copper and cobalt, was widening to capture other Congolese output such as zinc, in which Kipushi ranks among the world's highest-grade producers. For Ivanhoe, a US stockpiling arrangement would offer an additional, high-value sales channel alongside its existing zinc offtake through Walvis Bay and Durban, diversifying the mine's customer base beyond traditional industrial buyers. For Gécamines, the negotiations extended a pattern already visible at Kamoto Copper Company and Tenke Fungurume, in which the state miner used its minority joint-venture stakes as leverage to build an independent trading business capable of directing Congolese metal towards strategically preferred markets. Ivanhoe said Kipushi remained on course to produce within its 2026 guidance range even as the talks continued, suggesting the zinc mine's operational momentum was, for once, running ahead of the surrounding diplomacy rather than behind it.

Sources

• Mining.com: Ivanhoe in talks to send Congo zinc to US stockpile, 04 Feb 2026

Photo: Sphalerite, the primary zinc ore mineral, of the kind mined at Kipushi in the DRC. Pacific Museum of Earth from Canada, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.