JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - British mining company London Mining has revealed that it is in talks with major Chinese groups about its Marampa iron-ore project in Sierra Leone.

“We’re having these discussions now,” London Mining CEO Graeme Hossie told Bloomberg News. “I’m confident they will lead to potential cooperation which could include investments to accelerate production or a joint venture.”

The Chinese groups concerned are Sinosteel – China’s biggest iron-ore trader – and China Minmetals, which is the country’s largest metals trader. Hossie had previously reported that his company was holding discussions with China National Railways.

London Mining has started work on developing Marampa, the first phase of which requires a capital investment of $85-million, which will be drawn from the company’s cash reserves of $230-million. Marampa is wholly owned by London Mining and is a brownfield hematite iron-ore project.

The Marampa mine was operational from 1933 to 1975, and achieved a peak production of 2,5-million tons a year of iron-ore. London Mining acquired an exploration licence for the property in 2006.

In September, London Mining received a new mining licence and lease covering 13 82 km² as well as a package of fiscal incentives and commitments from the Sierra Leone government. Parliamentary ratification of this package is expected before the end of this year.

Phase one of the Marampa project will see the production of 1,5-million tons a year of fine sinter feed from the reprocessing of the existing mine tailings dumps. This target is scheduled to be reached in 2011.

Phase two, which is expected to commence in 2013, will see the restart of mining of the primary orebody, in an openpit operation. This will add more than 1,5-million tons a year of concentrate production, taking Marampa’s total production to more than three-million tons a year. Phase two is expected to be funded by incremental cash flow generated by phase one production.