London-listed Africa-focused mining giant African Minerals Ltd (AML) has announced that it has started loading the first iron ore shipment from its Tonkolili project in Sierra Leone. The shipment of 40,000 mt of direct shipping ore (DSO) will be delivered to Chinese steelmaker Shandong Iron and Steel Group through an integrated mine, rail and port infrastructure built by the company.
AML is also expanding the capacity at Tonkolili by building a 15 million mt per year wet processing facility scheduled for the first quarter of 2012 and an additional capacity of 5 million mt per year for hematite production to be commissioned in the last quarter of 2011. Accordingly, the Phase 1 DSO output as of 2013 and onwards is now expected to be 20 million mt per year.
AML executive chairman Frank Timis stated that, with the scheduled expansion to 20 million mt per year in Phase 1 of the Tonkolili project, AML "will become the largest fully integrated exporter of iron ore in West Africa."