Ilebo Mining Group
Gold is a naturally occurring metal, coveted throughout history as a symbol of beauty, store of wealth and an enduring form of currency.
Gold has many unique qualities – it is exceptionally malleable and ductile, conductive and does not corrode or tarnish. Gold also combines well with other metals to form an alloy. Its versatility makes it ideal for use in many industrial applications, and increasingly, its application as a nanomaterial is being used to create new solutions for a number of health and environmental challenges.
Gold wire is widely used in almost all electronic devices that make the internet function – computers, mobile phones, global positioning systems, etc. As an efficient and reliable conductor and connector, it enables the rapid, accurate transmission of data.
Ilebo Mining Group’s Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex is growing fast, highest-grade copper mine, on track for copper production of approximately 50,000 tonnes by Q4 2024. Additionally, our Platreef Mine, along with the Kipushi and Western Foreland projects, contain significant copper resources.
Copper is seen as the “metal of electrification” and is essential to all energy transition plans. Despite its critical status the potential supply-demand gap is expected to be “very large” as the energy transition intensifies. Substitution and recycling will not be enough to meet the demands of electric vehicles, power infrastructure, and renewable generation.
According to research from S&P Global, copper demand is projected to grow from 25 million tonnes today to about 50 million tonnes by 2035, a record-high level that will be sustained and continue to grow to 53 million tonnes by 2050. The research firm notes that power and automotive applications will have to be deployed at scale by 2035 in order to meet the 2050 net-zero targets.
Ilebo Mining Group is a leading diamond company, with expertise in diamond exploration, mining, grading, marketing and retail. Together with our joint venture partners, we employ more than 2,000 people across the global diamond pipeline, with many of these people in our source country in Republic of Congo. Through our own stores and our partner jeweler locations, our beautiful diamonds and jewellery designs bring joy and meaning to lovers of diamonds all around the world.
We are passionate about our diamonds and where they come from. We believe it is our responsibility to help protect the natural world, and to ensure our diamonds give back to the communities where they are discovered, helping them to thrive. We are leaders in pioneering solutions to ensure our diamonds are responsibly and ethically sourced, and in doing so are driving positive change for the whole industry.
A never solved problem in sedimentary petrology is the origin of sandstone consisting exclusively of quartz and most durable heavy minerals. The Congo River offers an excellent test case to investigate under which tectonic, geomorphological, climatic, and geochemical conditions pure quartzose sand is generated today. In both upper and lowermost parts of the catchment, tributaries contain significant amounts of feldspars, rock fragments, or moderately stable heavy minerals pointing at the central basin as the main location of the “quartz factory”.
In Congo sand, quartz is enriched relatively to all other minerals including zircon, as indicated by Si/Zr ratios much higher than in the upper continental crust. Selective elimination of old zircons that accumulated radiation damage through time is suggested by low percentages of grains yielding Archean Usingle bondPb ages despite the basin being surrounded by Archean cratonic blocks.
Intense weathering is documented by the lack of carbonate grains in sand and by dominant kaolinite and geochemical signatures in mud. In sand, composed almost entirely of SiO2, the weathering effect is masked by massive addition of quartz grains recycled during multiple events of basin inversion since the Proterozoic.
