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Hormuz Shutdown Spikes Sulphur, Hikes African Copper Leaching Costs

The cost of leaching copper oxide ore in the Central African Copperbelt is about to get even more expensive. In the past few days a number of Middle Eastern Oil refineries have been attacked / closed. In addition, exports through the Strait of Hormuz have ground to a halt. What has this got to do with leaching copper in one of the world’s largest copper belts ? Sulphur, or more specifically sulphuric acid. Approximately, 50% of seaborne sulphur is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. The central African Copperbelt imports around 2 million tonnes of this sulphur per annum. The sulphur is used in local sulphur burners to convert into sulphuric acid, which is used by mining companies for leaching copper out of copper oxide ores. One part of sulphur makes 3 parts of liquid high-strength sulphuric acid. Therefore, 2.0 million tonnes of sulphur produces approximately 6.0 million tonnes of sulphuric acid. The price of high-strength sulphuric in Kolwezi, on the western edge of the DRC Copperbelt, has been trading near all-time highs of $700-$800/tonne for the past 4-5 months, due to regional export restrictions, higher copper prices, as well as an already tight global sulphur market. This price will rise further. In addition to the 6.0 million tonnes of sulphuric acid produced from imported sulphur, 2.5 million tonnes of sulphuric acid is generated by regional smelters that smelt copper concentrates. Ivanhoe Mines’ Kamoa-Kakula has just started ramping up its copper smelter near Kolwezi. Once fully ramped-up later this year, our smelter will produce over 700,000 tonnes per annum of sulphuric acid… in the past 2 months the smelter has already ramped up to a capacity of 60%. This is an absolutely critical time to be ramping up our copper smelter, which is of the highest strategic importance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.