Mauritanian mining company Societe Nationale Industrielle et Miniere (SNIM) is planning to increase its iron ore production in 2008 to 12.380 million mt, up from 11.9 million mt in 2007.
In 2007 SNIM posted 11.8 million mt of iron ore exports, 81 percent of which was shipped to European Union countries. France was the country which imported the greatest quantity of SNIM's iron ore, with a figure of 2.7 million mt. China followed France with 2.171 million mt. Algeria ranked 12 among the major countries to which SNIM exported iron ore.
Moreover, SNIM is planning to increase it production capacity to 14 million mt in 2010. The company also expects its new project for the annual production of seven million mt of iron ore pellets to come on stream in 2011. Qatar Steel and Australian Sphere are both shareholders in this project which is scheduled to be the largest pellet producing project in the Middle East and North Africa Regions.