The Congo copper discovery size grows 30% in 16 months

What the Congo copper discovery size actually is

The Congo copper discovery size grew 30% between May 2025 and September 2026, Ivanhoe Mines states in its own release about the Makoko district, part of the Western Forelands project next to the already operating Kamoa Kakula copper complex the company runs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company now counts about 12 million tonnes of contained copper, meaning the actual copper metal inside the rock once separated from it, a total corroborated independently by a second outlet reading the same release. That total splits into 2 categories. Indicated means Ivanhoe Mines has drilled closely enough to be reasonably confident of the amount, 1.1 million tonnes of contained copper inside 42 million tonnes of ore graded 2.66% copper. Inferred means the drilling is wider spaced and less certain, 11.02 million tonnes of contained copper inside 612 million tonnes of ore graded 1.80% copper.

Nothing has been mined here yet

No mine exists at Makoko. Ivanhoe Mines plans a scoping study, the first formal step toward deciding whether and how to build a mine, to start in the first quarter of 2027.

We plan for scoping study work to commence soon, which will include mining some of the highest-grade, open pit copper mines in the world.

Robert Friedland, founder and executive co chairman of Ivanhoe Mines. Source 1.

About 60,000 metres of drilling done this year, roughly a third of the planned 94,500 metre programme, has not yet been folded into this resource count, with results due in 2027. Since the 2018 discovery of the district, its mineralized area has grown 300%, to 61 square kilometres, and its strike length, the distance the ore body runs along the ground, has grown 400%, to 16 kilometres.

Why the discovery matters for the whole clean energy supply chain

The Democratic Republic of Congo already mined 2.99 million metric tons of copper in 2024, 13% of the world total, the United States Geological Survey counts. World demand for copper in clean energy technology, meaning electric vehicles, power grids, solar panels and wind turbines combined, is projected to grow from 7.7 million tonnes in 2024 to 10.9 million tonnes a year by 2030, the International Energy Agency states.

Put the newly stated 12 million tonnes of contained copper at the Makoko district against that 7.7 million tonne 2024 clean energy demand figure, a comparison no source publishes and MAOWCE calculated by dividing 1 figure by the other, and the copper waiting in this 1 Congolese district equals about 1.6 years of the entire world clean energy technology copper appetite. The comparison sets a resource still in the ground against copper actually mined and used in a year, not a claim the deposit could supply clean energy alone or be mined out in 19 months.

Where the copper sits inside the district

The 12 million tonnes splits across several named deposits inside the wider Makoko district. The deposit named Makoko itself holds the most, 5.26 million tonnes of contained copper in its Inferred category alone. Kitoko holds 3.17 million tonnes, also entirely Inferred. Makoko West holds 2.58 million tonnes Inferred and 330,000 tonnes Indicated. Kiala, the smallest named deposit, holds 212,000 tonnes Indicated.