Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. announced that underground development at the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) mined and stockpiled 269,000 tonnes of ore grading 5.36% copper in December from the Kakula and Kansoko mines. The tonnage was 7.6% higher than November, while the copper grade was 10.5% higher. The project's pre-production surface stockpiles now contain approximately 1.52 million tonnes of high-grade and medium-grade ore at an estimated blended grade of 4.03% copper. Contained copper in the stockpiles increased by approximately 14,400 tonnes in December ­ a 30.9% increase over November's production reflecting the increased mining in the ultra-high-grade centre of the Kakula Deposit ­ to a cumulative total of more than 61,000 tonnes (the current copper price is approximately $7,900 a tonne). The project is on track to have approximately three million tonnes of high-grade and medium-grade ore stockpiled on surface, holding more than 125,000 tonnes of contained copper, prior to the planned start of processing in July 2021. Mr. Friedland and Mr. Sun also noted that the project team established another new monthly record for underground mine development in December with a total of 2,792 metres of advancement ­ 620 metres more than the previous monthly high achieved in October 2020. Another important development milestone was achieved in late December with the second holing of Kakula's northern and southern access tunnels, establishing additional access to mine Kakula's high-grade ore in the centre of the orebody grading +8% copper. December's record-setting advancement brings total underground development to approximately 29.8 kilometres ­ approximately 10.5 kilometres ahead of schedule. The monthly underground development in December was comprised of 2,521 metres at the Kakula Mine and 271 metres at the Kansoko Mine. Kakula's combined medium-grade and high-grade ore mined in December was approximately 245,000 tonnes at an average grade of 5.64% copper, including approximately 55,000 tonnes grading 8.75% copper from the +8% copper zone in the centre of the orebody. Mining crews at Kakula are primarily focused on developing the drift-and-fill mining blocks in the high-grade centre of the orebody. Opening up of the mining footprint for these high grade, drift-and-fill mining areas entails, by necessity, development work in areas of low-, medium- and high-grade ore, and is designed to coincide with the start-up of the processing plant in July. This will allow crews to deliver significant tonnage of high-grade ore directly from Kakula's underground workings to the processing plant. Kansoko's combined medium-grade and high-grade ore mined in December was approximately 24,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.49% copper. Priorities at Kansoko during December were to develop and support major ventilation airways towards the mine's No. 1 ventilation shaft. Kansoko is being developed by training crews and will be a supplemental source of ore for Phase 2 of the project's development when the Kakula concentrator processing capacity doubles to 7.6 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) - currently planned to be commissioned in third quarter 2022. Miners operating a jumbo drill at the face of a high-grade development drift near the centre of the Kakula Mine. Due to the thickness of the copper ore in this area, the drifts are 10 metres high by 7.5 metres wide (32.8 feet high by 24.6 feet wide), or 75 square metres. For perspective, the height of the drift is close to the height of a standard telephone pole. The average grade of ore in this area is 8.75% copper and the tonnage per blast is approximately 1,000 tonnes, more than double the tonnage per blast in a normal drift. Phase 1 copper production from the Kakula Mine is scheduled to begin in July 2021. Kakula is projected to be the world's highest-grade major copper mine, with an initial mining rate of 3.8 Mtpa at an estimated average feed grade of more than 6.0% copper over the first five years of operation. Phases 1 and 2 combined are forecast to produce approximately 400,000 tonnes of copper per year. Based on independent benchmarking, the project's phased expansion scenario to 19 Mtpa would position Kamoa-Kakula as the world's second largest copper mining complex, with peak annual copper production of more than 800,000 tonnes.