Ivanhoe Mines announces major boost in hydropower for Kamoa-Kakula. (Image source: Ivanhoe Mines)

Ivanhoe Mines reported that Kamoa-Kakula has entered a new phase of growth, marked by the successful startup of its on-site copper smelter

This milestone was made possible by a recent increase in imported hydroelectric power, which rose by 20MW to 70MW in mid-March and is set to reach 100MW in the coming days—doubling recent supply. With this added power, the project delivered record copper production in the last two weeks of March, exceeding its 2025 annualised guidance. This strong performance was also supported by the Phase 3 concentrator, which achieved record throughput and surpassed its design capacity.

“Despite recent volatility in global markets and with virtually all global equities knocked down by panic … and computerised trading algorithms … Ivanhoe Mines has a very strong balance sheet and generates powerful cash flows … In addition, we are in a privileged position with Kamoa-Kakula as one of the lowest-cost copper producers in our industry… and we expect our operating costs to decline even further as our state-of-the-art direct-to-blister smelter ramps up this year… The production of 99.7% pure copper anodes will significantly reduce our C1 cash costs due to a more than 50% reduction in transportation costs per unit of contained copper and the enjoyment of by-product sulphuric acid sales … a critical commodity in great demand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s copper industry,” said Robert Friedland, Ivanhoe Mines’ founder and executive co-chairman.

“We are delighted that Kamoa-Kakula’s growing pains, which led to power challenges, are behind us following our successful efforts to secure additional imported hydroelectricity … with more imported hydroelectric power from the Southern Africa Power Pool on its way very soon. We now have in place a long-term energy security program that future-proofs our energy mix as we continue to grow into the very top ranks of the world’s largest copper production complexes,” added Marna Cloete, president and CEO of Ivanhoe Mines.

“We are therefore sufficiently encouraged to inaugurate the startup of our state-of-the-art Kamoa-Kakula smelter… one of the largest and most technologically sophisticated smelters in the world. With the smelter coming online, we will no longer simply be exporting copper concentrate – we will export the world’s greenest copper anodes for the energy transition. As the world wakes up to a generational copper deficit, we have the assets, the people, and the infrastructure to deliver this responsibly sourced and most critical of all metals to world markets,” Friedland concluded.

Also read: Ivanhoe Mines expands exploration footprint with new Zambian licences

TotalEnergies has completed the acquisition of SN Power, collecting with it various hydropower assets in Africa, notably in Uganda with Bujagali Falls. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

TotalEnergies has completed the acquisition of SN Power, collecting with it various hydropower assets in Africa, notably in Uganda

The portfolio includes a 28.3% stake in Uganda’s 225 MW Bujagali hydropower plant.

“The acquisition of SN Power will allow TotalEnergies to implement its multi-energy strategy in Uganda, where the company is already active in (oil and gas) exploration and production,” it said in a statement.

The Bujagali plant currently meets more than 25% of Uganda’s peak electricity demand.

The acquisition of SN Power also gives TotalEnergies a stake in two other projects under development in Rwanda (206 MW) and Malawi (360 MW).

SN Power was a 100% subsidiary of Scatec, a Norwegian renewable energy company, with interests in renewable hydropower projects in Africa through a joint venture (51% SN Power) alongside Norfund and British International Investment.

Through the deal, TotalEnergies also acquires a team of hydropower development experts, strengthening its competencies in the field.

At the time of the original SN Power announcement, in June 2024, TotalEnergies had interests in hydropower projects worldwide with a gross capacity of 3.7 GW, including  1.5 GW under development in Mozambique with the Mphanda Nkuwa scheme.

Separately, it also closed the acquisition of VSB Group, a European wind and solar developer with extensive operations in Germany, and announced new deals with renewables developer RES, with a view to acquiring renewables projects in Canada.

“The completion of these three acquisitions — in Europe, North America and Africa — will contribute to our targets of 35 GW of gross renewable capacity by 2025 and over 100 TWh of electricity production by 2030,” said Stéphane Michel, president, gas, renewables and power at TotalEnergies.

“These acquisitions strengthen our operations in markets where we are deploying our Integrated Power business, like Germany and in North America, and in countries, such as Uganda, where we can leverage synergies with our exploration and production activities.

“Furthermore, these acquisitions will contribute to cash flow growth and to our goal of reaching our 12% profitability target in the electricity segment.”

Kamoa Copper and CrossBoundary Energy partner to provide baseload renewable power to the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in DRC. (Image source: CrossBoundary Energy)

Kamoa Copper S.A. and CrossBoundary Energy have entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply renewable baseload energy to the Kamoa-Kakula Copper mining complex, one of the largest copper mines globally, located near Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Kamoa Copper S.A. joint venture, composed of Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin Mining Group, and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (which holds a 20% stake), operates Africa’s largest copper mining complex, with an annual copper production capacity of approximately 600,000 tonnes. The new on-site direct-to-blister copper smelter is slated to begin operations in Q2 2025.

The solar project, Africa’s first of its kind, will feature a 222 MWp solar PV system alongside a 123 MVA/526 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). The plant will provide a 30 MW renewable energy supply to the mine, displacing fuel-powered generators and cutting carbon emissions by about 78,750 tonnes annually. CrossBoundary Energy will own and manage the plant, with Kamoa Copper purchasing the energy used. It is expected to produce around 300,000 MWh of clean energy annually.

While many mining operations have integrated solar PV and BESS systems, providing baseload renewable energy—a consistent power output at all times—is uncommon due to concerns over intermittency. However, with advancements in solar PV efficiency and declining BESS costs, a renewable baseload system has become feasible and is now more cost-effective than the diesel generators previously used at the mine.

"This is a pivotal moment for Kamoa Copper and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As a company, Kamoa Copper has been setting innovative benchmarks in various domains, and with this partnership on baseload renewable energy, we will continue to do so. We are pleased to have CrossBoundary Energy as our first partner in this endeavor. Their commitment to honesty, integrity, and delivery is exemplary. We anticipate hard work and successful outcomes from this project. From Kamoa Copper's side, we are committed to providing unwavering support to ensure our suppliers' success, as we demand excellence in all our collaborations," stated Annebel Oosthuizen, managing director of Kamoa Copper.

"The solar project is a key milestone in delivering clean, reliable energy to Kamoa Copper. With advanced solar and battery systems, we’re boosting energy resilience, cutting emissions, and advancing sustainable mining. We commend CrossBoundary Energy for their professionalism and technical expertise," remarked Auguy Bakome, project manager at Kamoa Copper.

"Africa’s most significant hindrance to growth and investment is access to reliable and affordable power. Projects like these prove that distributed clean energy can now provide cheaper baseload power, even for heavy industry. We congratulate the Kamoa Copper S.A. team for this project, which will advance the whole sector," concluded Matthew Tilleard, managing partner at CrossBoundary Energy.

 Also read: Ivanhoe Mines reshape DRC’s copper and zinc future

South Africa’s energy reforms boost IPP access and wheeling framework growth. (Image source: Synergy Consulting IFA)

South Africa’s energy story is marked by systemic impediments and formidable challenges but also by consistent progress in different realms

While transmission continues to act as a bottleneck in the country’s transition from conventional to green energy, the regulatory improvements in wheeling arrangements as well as the refinements in the framework have paved a long way to fillip the impetus towards energy market liberalisation.

RSA started liberalising its energy market in 2011 when it launched REIPPPP round 1 to allow independent power producers to compete with Eskom, the state-owned power generator. Albeit, REIPPPP rounds continued with substantial fervor, Eskom continued to hold effective monopoly on power transmission and offtake. With an integrated utility, the country kept facing structural challenges around competition, regulatory framework and transparency that have marred similar geographies around the globe.

A revolutionary upheaval, however, came in August 2021, when South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa announced the increase in the exemption threshold for embedded generation projects from 1MW to 100MW. This meant that any private power generation project up to 100 megawatts (MW) could be developed without applying for a generation license from the national energy regulator, NERSA, as long as it was grid-connected, and registered with NERSA, even though a formal license was no longer required. Earlier, Independent Power Producers (IPPs) aiming to develop power plant for C&I (Commercial and Industrial) generation, were required to apply for a full-fledged NERSA license, in case the plants exceeded 1 MW. Application for the NERSA license used to be a process marked by prolonged delays leading to a convoluted and protracted process.

In December 2022, RSA achieved another key milestone by removing the 100MW cap as well. This led to a further liberalisation of the market and a sudden entry of IPPs into the energy mix. With all these major overhauls, transmission became a major point of contention in the RSA’s energy regime. Albeit transmission woes continue to provide a bottleneck to various key regions (such as the Northern Cape province), and full unbundling of Eskom is still to be completed, RSA’s wheeling framework is a commendable part of the unbundling vision and has enabled the country to progress on its way towards a greener future.

Prior to 2020, IPPs had limited interest in the RSA market and there existed no standardised national wheeling framework. However, with the removal of the cap on embedded generation licensing requirements, Eskom also introduced a formalised structure providing template wheeling agreement and guidelines around metering, settlements, and pricing of the use of system charges. Since then, Eskom has been able to efficaciously optimise its wheeling arrangements through some key theme areas:

Unrestricted access to all: RSA allows open access to grid to all qualifying IPPs (irrespective of whether Eskom or any other private consumer is the offtaker). The grid reservation mechanism works on a “first-ready, first-served” principle providing all IPPs a fair and competitive environment to vie for the limited transmission infrastructure.

Transparent pricing: The grid use of system charges and other applicable charges are based on publicly available frameworks and the computation of the same are available to all market participants.

Settlement procedure: Eskom uses a virtual wheeling framework allowing multiple off-takers to procure electricity form a single generator. A key implication of this approach has been the growth of energy traders in the RSA market. Akin to other developed markets, RSA’s long-term vision shall include full unbundling of the state-owned utility and a move towards a merchant-based market model. The extant wheeling framework has allowed a rapid growth of energy trading in the power market with multiple licenses being issued to traders in recent years.

Currently, some of the forward-looking municipalities are also pushing forward to have standardised wheeling arrangement to allow the entry of C&I players at the distribution network level. For instance, the city of Cape Town has progressed on preparing NERSA approved wheeling agreement as well as a framework for automated balancing.

A robust wheeling framework forms the backbone of private investment in any country energy market and RSA has exhibited that notwithstanding the transmission capacity bottlenecks, a well-crafted wheeling framework, with opportune regulatory practices in place, provided sufficient impetus to private generators, traders, and consumers to operate in the market. What really stands out in RSA’s case and can function as a guiding principle for other African economies, is the tandem that has been established between the reforms in the generator market and the introduction of the standardised wheeling frameworks. In addition to that, RSA’s reforms are also forward looking and enabling the market towards a decentralised merchant power model, as the energy settlement procedures put in place already account for a multiple offtaker model in the market.

The article is authored by Synergy Consulting IFA.