Kamoa-Kakula, a joint venture with Zijin Mining, the government and Crystal River Global, began production two weeks ago but immediately faced a renewed export ban and started seeking an exemption.  

The company said yesterday Kamoa-Kakula was now "fully authorised to commence exports of blister copper and copper concentrate to international markets".

Operating company Kamoa Copper has signed offtake agreements with Zijin subsidiary Gold Mountains International Mining Company and CITIC Metal.

Each would take 50% of phase one production, expected to total about 200,000 tonnes per annum, and Ivanhoe said the off-take agreements were "on competitive arm's-length commercial terms".

Both Zijin and CITIC would provide an advance payment facility of up to US$150 million to be drawn at the election of Kamoa Copper from June 10 until May 31, 2023.

"CITIC Metal and Zijin will purchase the copper concentrate at the Kakula mine and the blister copper at the Lualaba Copper Smelter on a free-carrier basis, meaning the buyers will be responsible for arranging freight and shipment to the final destination, initially via the port of Durban, South Africa," Ivanhoe said.

Kamoa Copper had last week signed a 10-year agreement to have about 40% of phase one concentrate smelted at Lualaba, 40km away.

The mine is expected to produce 80,000-95,000t of copper in concentrate this year.

Ivanhoe reached all-time high in May of C$9.55 and is up 26.8% so far this year.

It closed up slightly to $8.70 yesterday, valuing it at $10.5 billion (US$8.7 billion).