Iron ore and manganese development company Ferrex, whose main interests are in African iron ore assets, has announced a positive scoping study update from its 74 percent owned Malelane iron ore project located in the province of Mpumalanga in South Africa, which has direct access to the port of Maputo in Mozambique.
The study suggested that Malelane would cost US$139 million compared to US$297 million suggested in the initial scoping study. According to the new estimates, the project could generate a 50 percent return on investment compared to a previous forecast of 39 percent, though the current total net value of the project has fallen from an estimated US$513 million to US$317 million.
As previously calculated, Malelane hosts a total exploration target of between 775 and 930 million mt at 34-36 percent iron. The maiden inferred resource of the project stands at 139 million mt at 37 percent iron with the potential to develop an initial 16.6 year mine life at an estimated production rate of 3 million mt per year.