Ivanhoe Mines grows Makoko copper discovery by 30% in DRC's Western Forelands

Ivanhoe Mines said on 8 September 2026 that an updated mineral resource estimate for the Makoko District, part of its Western Forelands exploration project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has grown contained copper by 30% since a May 2025 estimate, to approximately 12 million tonnes. The Makoko District now hosts an indicated resource of 34 million tonnes at 2.66% copper and an inferred resource of 612 million tonnes at 1.80% copper, while the nearby Kiala deposit adds a further 8 million tonnes indicated at 2.67% copper.

An aggressive drill campaign

The growth follows roughly 64,000 metres of diamond drilling since the previous estimate, part of a 2026 program that is Ivanhoe's largest to date: more than 80,000 metres of diamond core drilling and 14,500 metres of reverse-circulation drilling across up to nine rigs, of which about 70% had been completed by August. Executive co-chair Robert Friedland said the Western Forelands discoveries "continue to grow explosively," describing the area as "the most important sedimentary-hosted copper basin on our planet" and pointing to a discovery rate he put at 100 million pounds of copper per 1,000 metres drilled.

Why it matters

The Western Forelands licence package covers 2,426 square kilometres, more than six times the area of Ivanhoe's existing Kamoa-Kakula mining complex, and sits within the same central African copperbelt that already supplies a large share of the world's cobalt and a growing share of its copper. A resource of this scale, still expanding and still open in several directions, reinforces the DRC's position as the destination for large-scale copper exploration capital even as investors weigh political and logistical risk in the country.

What happens next

Ivanhoe plans an upsized infill drilling program of about 120,000 metres starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, aimed at converting more of the inferred resource to the indicated category ahead of a Makoko scoping study due to begin in the first quarter of 2027. A further resource update, incorporating roughly 60,000 metres of 2026 drilling not yet included in the current estimate, is expected in 2027.

Sources

• Ivanhoe Mines: Ivanhoe Mines Increases the Size of Massive Western Forelands' Copper Discovery by 30%, 08 Sept 2026
• The Northern Miner: Ivanhoe's giant Makoko copper find gets 30% bigger, 08 Sept 2026