The 34-kilometre east-west road infrastructure, designed to connect crucial points of shipping construction materials and copper concentrates, is now 25% complete. Officials project it will be ready for full operation by the end of this year.

The miner said the road will not only significantly improve Komoa-Kakula's transport corridor, but also improve employee safety and commuting time for employees between Kamoa-Kakula, Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, as well as visitors arriving at the Kolwezi airport.

"[It] will provide Kamoa-Kakula with a direct, high-quality connection to the national road between Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, and to a proposed new south-bound provincial road that will connect to Lumwana, Zambia and the Zambian rail system, via a planned new border crossing," Ivanhoe officials added. "This proposed heavy-haul route to Zambia would significantly streamline truck freight to and from Kamoa-Kakula."

Nineteen kilometres of the new road is being built by the Kamoa-Kakula joint venture. The Lualaba provincial government is constructing the remaining 15km via a toll concession agreement.

The toll road will also include a new northbound 9km section of road that will connect all mines on the western side of Kolwezi to the new provincial road.

Additionally, a separate 8km private mine access road is being built by the Kamoa-Kakula joint venture at Kamoa-Kakula; it will help safely bypass the villages of Israel and Kaponda. That road, too, will be complete by the end of the year and will also connect the mine to the arterial provincial roadway.

The Kamoa-Kakula project is just west of the mining centre of Kolwezi in the DRC. The project is a joint venture of Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC government (20%).