Canada-based miner Black Iron has announced that it has signed a binding royalty and offtake agreement with UK-based miner Anglo American for a US$4 million royalty investment, offtake rights and future potential construction prepayments for its Shymanivske iron ore project in Ukraine. Anglo American will secure offtake rights to at least an annual 2.4 million mt for the life of the mine.
The Shymanivske iron ore project will be developed in two phases. In the first phase, the project’s production capacity will be an annual four million mt, while in the second phase the production will double to approximately eight million mt.
“The majority of the initial US$2.6 million of funds from the transaction will be used to renew the permit for our project which will expire six months after the end of martial law in Ukraine. Further, the future potential funding for project construction from such a highly credible mining company as Anglo American is important to demonstrate a clear path forward to build the Shymanivske iron ore project into an operating mine after the war in Ukraine comes to an end,” Matt Simpson, CEO of Black Iron, said.