JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed iron-ore and manganese development company Ferrex on Monday said it had been granted the 309 km² Ngama exploration licence that covered the high-grade Mebaga iron-ore deposit, in Gabon, West Africa.

Previous exploration undertaken by the French public earth sciences institution, the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, at Mebaga defined direct shipping ore (DSO) iron-ore over 1.8 km of strike.

Ferrex, which would own an 82% interest in the project through its holding in Gabonese company Equatorial Resources, set an exploration target of 20-million tons at 60% iron and a larger, lower-grade target of 50-million tons at 47% iron.

Extensive pitting in the main zone of Mebaga returned intercepts that included 58.4% iron at 27 m, 57.5% iron at 18.5 m and 61.4% at 10.5 m

Conveniently located, the Mebaga deposit is 30 km from a sealed highway, 100 km north of the Trans-Gabon railway and 260 km from the deep water Owendo port.

Ferrex further indicated that it planned to implement a fast-tracked exploration plan to target the definition of a high-grade iron-ore resource, as Gabon was a stable, pro-mining country that hosted various quality iron-ore deposits, including Belinga, which holds a reserve of one-billion tons of ore at 60% iron.

"The Mebaga iron-ore licence has the potential to be transformational for Ferrex, particularly with the presence of high-grade DSO iron-ore mineralisation on site. It is our intention to rapidly progress the project up the resource curve and ultimately to the bankable feasibility study stage, by targeting the known mineralisation and conducting a comprehensive exploration programme over the licence area this year,” MD Dave Reeves said.

The company’s other development assets in Africa included the Nayega manganese project, in Togo, which was at the definitive feasibility stage, and the Malelane iron-ore project, in South Africa, where a scoping study had been completed.

Meanwhile, the Ngama exploration licence area overlapped with Africa-focused gold miner GoldStone’s Oyem licence, resulting in the company concluding a coexistence agreement with Equatorial Resources, which permitted Equatorial to explore for iron.

However, this was provided that GoldStone's pre-existing rights were not affected and that such rights would carry preference over Equatorial's rights to explore and mine iron-ore.

Under the agreement, Equatorial Resources must undertake systematic soil sampling of the banded ironstone formation (BIF) areas for iron and gold and provide GoldStone with the data.

Equatorial Resources is also to limit its exploration to BIF and any unmapped areas within 1 km thereof, while GoldStone is to receive a 1% royalty on all iron-ore produced, as well as the partial reimbursement of certain past costs.

Further, Equatorial would pay 50% of GoldStone's expenses incurred in creating road access to the Oyem licence and 50% of GoldStone's costs in purchasing system of stabilisation of export earnings from mining products (SYSMIN) data relating to the Oyem licence area.

The agreement also states that Equatorial would cease all work if GoldStone found meaningful gold mineralisation prior to the commencement by Equatorial of a prefeasibility study, which would start after definition of a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource across the BIF areas.

"The agreement allows us to explore vicariously the southern part of the Oyem licence and gives us the prospect of a royalty income should Ferrex be successful with its iron-focused exploration in the area," GoldStone CEO Jurie Wessels said.