On June 9, African Minerals Limited (African Minerals), a mineral exploration and development company with significant iron ore and base metal interests in Sierra Leone, West Africa, announced that an aggressive exploration program is underway to define additional hematite mineralization to underpin the expansion of Phase I from 8 million mt per year of direct shipping ore (DSO) product to 25 million mt per year of DSO and hematite concentrate products at the Tonkolili project in Sierra Leone's Northern Province. The company said that it is currently on schedule to commence production and shipping of 8 million mt of DSO hematite product in Q1 2011 in the context of Phase I.
African Minerals added that work on the haul road and other infrastructure is progressing to schedule, as are an engineering study covering process engineering, the extension of the railway from Lunsar to Tonkolili and the construction of a berth at Tagrin Point in line with the aim to increase production.
The timeline for the expansion to Phase II for 25 million mt per year magnetite production will be ascertained following the results of the engineering study, scheduled for delivery Q4 2010, African Minerals said. As a result of the planned early production of hematite product, the start of Phase III delivery of 45 million mt per year of magnetite product is pushed out until after 2014, as previously envisaged.