Ivanhoe Mines (TSE: IVN) (OTCMKTS: IVPAF) has increased the contained copper resource at its Makoko District by 30 per cent following an extensive drilling campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The company said Tuesday that Makoko now contains approximately 12 million tonnes of copper across its Indicated and Inferred resource categories.
Ivanhoe completed approximately 64,000 metres of diamond drilling across 106 holes since its previous resource update in May 2025. Additionally, the company has expanded the known mineralized area while continuing to test extensions of the copper system.
Makoko forms part of Ivanhoe’s Western Forelands Exploration Project, a 2,426-square-kilometre licence package near the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex. The project covers an area more than six times larger than the neighbouring mining complex. Ivanhoe has progressively expanded Makoko since making the initial discovery through step-out drilling from Kakula in 2018.
Subsequent exploration connected several areas of copper mineralization into what Ivanhoe now calls the Makoko District. The district includes the Makoko, Makoko West and Kitoko discoveries. Meanwhile, drilling has increased the district’s strike length by more than 400 per cent since Ivanhoe announced its maiden Makoko resource in 2023. It now extends for 16 kilometres.
The combined mineralized area has also grown by 300 per cent to approximately 61 square kilometres. Ivanhoe reported 34 million tonnes grading 2.66 per cent copper in the Indicated category. Those resources contain approximately 900,000 tonnes of copper using a 1 per cent copper cut-off grade.
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Ivanhoe said mineralization remains open in several directions
In addition, Makoko holds 612 million tonnes grading 1.80 per cent copper in the Inferred category. That represents approximately 11 million tonnes, or 24.3 billion pounds, of contained copper. Ivanhoe reported those resources within mineable shapes optimized using a 1 per cent copper cut-off.
The latest drilling added approximately 130,000 tonnes of contained copper to the Indicated category, representing a 17 per cent increase. Furthermore, it added 2.63 million tonnes of contained copper to the Inferred resource, increasing that category by 31 per cent. The nearby Kiala deposit remains unchanged at eight million tonnes grading 2.67 per cent copper.
Ivanhoe founder and executive co-chairman Robert Friedland described Western Forelands as an unusually large and productive sediment-hosted copper system. He also said the company’s geologists have discovered more than 55 million tonnes of copper across the broader basin. Friedland called Makoko the largest and highest-grade new copper discovery of the past decade.
Ivanhoe said mineralization remains open in several directions, leaving additional room to expand the Makoko resource. Consequently, the company plans to intensify both infill and step-out drilling as it continues defining the deposit. Its 2026 Western Forelands program represents Ivanhoe’s largest drilling campaign at the project to date.
The company plans more than 80,000 metres of diamond core drilling and 14,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling during 2026. Up to nine diamond rigs have operated since the beginning of the year. By August, Ivanhoe had completed approximately 70 per cent of the planned diamond program, representing 55,700 metres of drilling.
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Current drilling focuses on three areas
However, the new resource estimate only incorporates drilling data collected through March 31, 2026. Approximately 20,000 metres drilled during the first quarter contributed assay results to the current estimate. Ivanhoe expects to incorporate results from another approximately 60,000 metres of 2026 drilling into a resource update planned for 2027.
Current drilling focuses on three main areas around Makoko. Crews are testing extensions east and southwest of the district while filling gaps between Makoko and Makoko West. Additionally, those programs could determine whether mineralization continues beyond the boundaries used for the current resource calculation.
Ivanhoe also changed the method used to calculate the Makoko resource for the 2026 estimate. Previous estimates reported mineralized material directly from geological block models after applying boundaries, estimated grades and cut-off grades. The new calculation instead uses mineable shape optimization, or MSO, to apply practical underground mining constraints.
MSO groups mineralized material into shapes that could potentially support an underground mining operation. The method considers factors including minimum mining widths, stope dimensions, orientation, mineralization continuity and expected dilution. Consequently, it provides a more constrained estimate than treating every qualifying mineralized block as material that miners could selectively extract.
The company prepared the estimate under the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s 2014 resource definition standards. Ivanhoe executive vice-president of technical services Simon Bottoms directed the estimate and serves as its Qualified Person. He is not considered independent of Ivanhoe for National Instrument 43-101 purposes.
Meanwhile, Ivanhoe plans to begin scoping study work as exploration continues across the district.
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Ivanhoe identified 34.8 million tonnes of contained copper
The studies will examine potential development options, including mining some of Makoko’s higher-grade zones through open pits. The company said some higher-grade portions resemble mineralization at the neighbouring Kamoa orebody.
Kamoa currently supplies ore to the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex’s Phase 3 concentrator and will supply its planned Phase 4 concentrator. Ivanhoe said Makoko and Kiala together rank as the largest and highest-grade copper discovery made during the past decade.
Across the broader Western Forelands basin, Ivanhoe has identified approximately 34.8 million tonnes of contained copper in Measured and Indicated resources. In addition, the company has identified 17.1 million tonnes in Inferred resources at a 1 per cent copper cut-off. Those totals include Kamoa-Kakula, Makoko, Makoko West, Kitoko and Kiala on a 100 per cent project basis.
Friedland said Ivanhoe’s exploration teams continue finding copper at an unusually high rate relative to the amount of drilling completed. The company estimates it has discovered about 100 million pounds of contained copper for every 1,000 metres drilled. Meanwhile, continued drilling will test whether Makoko’s remaining open mineralized zones can add further tonnes to the district’s resource base.
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