The southern Africa-focused miner had initially expected the Congolese Kamoa-Kakula mine - which began commercial production in July last year - to sell 95,000t of copper in 2021, with that having later been increased to 92,500-100,000t. 

"After adjusting for non-cash items, Ivanhoe's Q4 earnings matched our expectation of $0.06/share and were fuelled by an attributable net profit from Kakula/Kamoa of $78.4 million," BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Mikitchook said. 

The rise in Q4 production helped to cut C1 cash costs to $1.28/lb in Q4, which was down from $1.37/lb in Q3. 

Ivanhoe said it is on track for Kamoa-Kakula's phase-two expansion, which will double the size of the mine's concentrator plant, to begin in April. The company left its 2022 production guidance unchanged at 290,000-340,000t. C1 cash-cost guidance for the year was $1.20-$1.40/pound. 

BMO's expectation falls at the mid-point of 315,000t. 

The miner set capital expenditure guidance for 2022 of $775 million, which Mikitchook said was a "modest increase" over BMO's model and mostly stemmed from Kamoa-Kakula. 

Also in 2022, a pre-feasibility study was scheduled in Q3 as part of the phase-three expansion. 

Ivanhoe traded at C$11.05/share (US$8.58/share) on March 8 and had a market capitalisation of C$13.37 billion.