African Minerals

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On September 17, headlines erupted with the news that African Minerals Limited, a mineral exploration company with significant interests in Sierra Leone, West Africa, is in “advanced” talks with Kazakh digger Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) and “several large industrial corporations in Asia” over a potential takeover of the company or the creation of a new iron-ore partnership.

Just two hours after African Minerals press statements made this indication the potential deal was subdued by comments from ENRC which stated that they are “considering a range of opportunities, including diversification into Africa, but at this time the focus of its consideration is the possible transaction with Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC).”

On September 21, the story evolved as African Minerals announced that they are in Tonkolili takeover talks with a plethora of major mining companies including ENRC, "a Chinese consortium" and "a Brazilian organization."

It is no surprise to see that African Minerals is high on the world news agenda, with many of the worldwide major mining players eager to hear the latest scoop on their Tonkolili flagship project which is said to potentially be the largest iron ore deposit in the world.

African Minerals boasts an extensive portfolio of mineral rights in Sierra Leone, a region in which it has been actively investing since 2003.

IRJ takes a closer look at the continued successful work of African Minerals within the Sierra Leone region, and delves into the company’s great potential for future growth.

African Minerals: The Tonkolili Project
In 2004 African Minerals completed the first aeromagnetic survey Sierra Leone had ever seen, closely followed by exploration programmes and multi-element sampling analysis that have lead to the weighty portfolio they have today.

The Tonkolili project, an iron ore venture, spans the regions of Simbili, Numbara and Marampon. A Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) compliant magnetite resource of 5.1 billion tonnes (as prepared by SRK Consulting (UK) Limited) has been announced.  The JORC Mineral Resource estimate has also suggested a high mining recovery rate of 97.5 per cent.  Metallurgical test work has indicated that Tonkolili iron ore is upgradeable to a high quality concentrate grading in excess of 68 per cent iron at a mass recovery of over 30 per cent. 

Further geophysical and reconnaissance drilling over a strike length of 20 kilometres at the Kasafoni area has indicated some very promising potential to increase the iron ore magnetite mineral resource to the order of 10 billion tonnes.

Exploration activities at Tonkolili have also confirmed the potential for 800 million tonnes of hematite mineralisation too.

On September 23 of this year, Tonkolili hit our headlines in its own right, when Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, addressed his people in the United States, saying the five billion tons of Tonkolili iron ore was not a curse of the country. His positive and supportive words about the resource saw a soar in media interest around this already world-class deposit. Koroma made this comment during a speech about the increasingly business-friendly reputation his West African nation has been gaining.

It goes without saying that African Minerals are acutely aware of the corporate social responsibility within Sierra Leone too. Their website explains that as one of the largest employers in the country, the company is “continually implementing social development programmes within Sierra Leone to support communities in its operational areas and to complement government initiatives across the country.”

“These programmes are undertaken to assist the Sierra Leone government’s drive to reduce poverty and provide improved health care, education, infrastructure, sports and local government development,” their website continues.

Recent media attentions surrounding the vast Tonkilili project exemplify the government and public supportive relationship which African Minerals has cultivated throughout its work within the region.

A Portfolio to be Proud of
In addition to Tonkolili, African Minerals has The Marampa Iron Ore project (in conjunction with Cape Lambert Iron Ore Limited). Marampa is a 319 square-metre exploration licence (EXPL09/06), located 150 kilometres north-east of Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. The exploration work undertaken by African Minerals has already located numerous iron ore prospects on this licence.

“These represent extensions to, and outliers of, the same geological formation hosting the red cap and specular hematite schist ore mined by DELCO. In addition, there is a significant quantity of iron ore tailings located on the licence left from the DELCO operations,” African Minerals says.

“Scout exploration diamond drilling by the company over a prominent gravity anomaly at Gafal West, which is the prospect located to the southwest of the old mine, has confirmed the occurrence of specular hematite schist mineralization with iron grades ranging from 23 to 30 per cent over broad intervals.”

The company is concentrating its financial, management and operational resources on the Tonkolili iron ore project, the Marampa iron ore project and the Pepel Port and Railway infrastructure project.

“This strategy, together with the challenging economic conditions being experienced by business in general, has resulted in the company’s decision to scale back activities at its diamond, base metals and uranium exploration projects,” African Minerals explains.

“The company is pursuing value adding strategies with regard to its other projects that may include alliances and joint ventures with suitors and is in the process of finalising the relinquishment of certain licences in Sierra Leone, which have not revealed any significant mineral anomalies. This will allow us to focus both funding and resources on project areas which have the potential to add the most value.”

African Minerals have built up an enviable portfolio of projects. Their aim to “to create value through exploration, discovery and development” is certainly reflected by the Tonkilili project and bolstered by their additional interests. The company faces a potential future resource of 800 billion tonnes, which is a bright future, indeed.