Good News for Sierra Leone: Marampa to Export First Shipment of Iron Ore to Europe this Month.
18th January 2012 · 0 Comments
The Last time iron ore left Marampa mines to Europe, was in the late 70’s. After a little over thirty years in the freezing, the land is finally ready to export its first shipment of iron ore this month to Europe.
Sierra Leone-focused iron ore miner London Mining has continued to ramp-up output from its Marampa mine and expects to start shipping to Europe this month. According to Chief executive Graham Hossie, “”This is very significant for Sierra Leone as well as for London Mining, “Chief Executive Graeme Hossie told reporters on Friday.”Sierra Leone is now back producing high specification iron ore…they are expecting a big increase in their GDP next year.”
Production now totals 57,000 tonnes of concentrate at high grades. Some 5,782 tonnes has been loaded on to barges and moved to Port Loko channel before being shipped to Freetown Bay for onward shipping to Europe. The concentrate grades were high at 66.2% Fe. The group lowered its production target for this year to 1.5Mt, but raised the forecast to 3.5Mt in 2013 and 4.6Mt in 2014. Eventually, production at Marampa could grow to 17Mtpa.
Like its rivals, the African Minerals which shipped the first iron ore from its Tonkolili mine in Sierra Leone last month, London Mining’s first shipment are ready for theirs. “Sierra Leone has a huge mineral potential…the country needs foreign investment to help develop those,” Hossie said, noting the support given by the government.
London Mining currently employs 2,400 workers at Marampa, including contractors, of which about 92 percent are from Sierra Leone.
Production will increase during the first half of 2012 to over 160,000 tonnes a month, with 1.8 million tonnes of production still targeted for 2012.
“The production of high specification iron ore product from our plant at Marampa after decades of mine inactivity marks the beginning of our Phase 1 ramp up and forms the basis for our phased expansions to 16 Mtpa (million tonnes per annum),” said Hossie
Shares in London Mining were up 1.3 percent at 1008 GMT, valuing the company at about 340 million pounds.
© 2012, Christian Foday Sesay Jr. EIC. All rights reserved. Discuss this article on the Salone Forum Salone Forum
By Christian Foday Sesay Jr. EIC
