US-listed explorer, Copper Intelligence Inc., is advancing its copper exploration and development projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo after initial drilling results from the Butembo Copper Project showed strong promise.
According to drill-core data from the Butembo project released by Copper Intelligence during the Clean Energy & Metals Virtual Investor Conference in August, the company’s initial six-hole drilling programme confirmed a strong near-surface copper mineralization profile, including 7.55 metres at 5.39 per cent copper from surface, while extending the known mineralized structure to over 300 metres along strike.
Chairman of Copper Intelligence, Andrew Groves, confirmed in an interview on CNBC Africa’s ‘Power Lunch East Africa’ on Monday, 31 August 2026, that the company expects to release another six drill results this week and now sees the mineralized strike length extending to about 1,400 metres, with potential to widen the mineralized zone to roughly 75 to 100 metres.
“We are very excited about the copper grades so far. The first six holes just have proved up what we thought all along. We get grades of 5 per cent, 18 per cent and 30 per cent, but when you composite over each of the holes, we’re running at about 2.96 per cent of the 16 metres each hole,” Groves told CNBC Africa.
“And the good news is that we will be announcing this week the next six holes that seem to be not too dissimilar to the last six. We have extended the strike length to about 1,400 metres, which we are very pleased about,” he said.
The company executive said Copper Intelligence sees scope to extend the system further, potentially toward 7 kilometres to 8 kilometres of strike, as well as widening the ore body.
He said the company had initially been working with an estimated width of about 25 metres, but has “done some angled holes along the strike and look at about 75 to 100 metres of width.”
“So, this potentially can be a world-class deposit going forward. Obviously, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done between now and then, but as I said, we are very excited about it all – good grades, near surface, big open pit, and good access into exports,” he said.
Expatiating on the potential for exports, Groves said the project is located about 30 kilometres to 40 kilometres from the Ugandan border, with road transport access into Uganda, making it easy to “track it down or rail it down to Mombasa for export.”
The eastern Congo area also offers surplus power, which could become strategically important if the company eventually considers building processing capacity, such as an SX-EW plant or smelting infrastructure, he said.
Whereas the project’s location in eastern DRC may draw close investor scrutiny given the region’s security history, Groves said Copper Intelligence is comfortable with current operating conditions around the project area, citing cooperation between the Congolese and Ugandan governments to secure the broader region and root out Jihadi rebels.
“Not too far from our exploration camp is the Ugandan military base. So we are sort of very secure from the security point of view with having them there,” Groves said.
“So, from a power point of view we are in good shape. From a logistics point of view we are in good shape. And from security, we are very comfortable with the Ugandan People’s Defence Force doing a fantastic job there,” he said.
Groves argued that Butembo stands out because eastern DRC has historically been better known for coltan, tantalum, niobium and gold rather than large-scale copper production. That could give the project an infrastructure advantage if a mine is developed, particularly in contrast with the more established copper belt in Katanga, where power constraints have at times weighed on miners.
Copper Intelligence is still in the exploration stage, but Groves said confidence is rising as more holes are drilled. He said the company had started hole 13 and expected to complete another three holes by the end of next week, taking the total to 15.
Those new holes are being angled to better define both the width and strike continuity of the deposit, Groves said, adding that each additional hole improves the company’s understanding of the project’s economic resilience.
Making a case for the project’s appeal, Groves said, “There’s just not enough copper in the world,” with electrification, data centre buildouts, defence spending and electric vehicles driving demand for what he described as “the new oil”, even as declining grades at major existing mines could tighten supply.
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