British-based 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 haematite iron-ore project. The company acquired an exploration licence for the property in 2006.

The Marampa mine, which is located close to the town of Lunsar, was operational from 1933 to 1975 and achieved a peak production of 2,5-million tons per annum (Mtpa) of iron-ore. 
Operated by the Sierra Leone Development Company and William Baird, it was closed 
because of low iron-ore prices. It was reopened in the mid-1980s by Austromineral (a subsidiary of Voest-Alpine) but operated for only a brief period before closing down again.

Later, the Sierra Leone civil war (1991–2000) not only prevented 
the redevelopment and reactivation of the mine, but also destroyed a lot of its associated documentation, resulting in London Mining having to carry out a 54-hole, 6 925-m drilling programme to re-establish the resource contained in the orebody. 
Surviving records give a 
resource estimate of 84-million tons of ore at a grade of 37% iron, but these estimates are historical and were not prepared in accordance with today’s internationally recognised standards.

London Mining found itself in a dispute with African Minerals over the boundary between their territories, a disagreement that lasted nearly a year but which was settled to the satisfaction of both parties in August. 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 Mtpa of fine sinter feed from the reprocessing of the existing mine tailings dumps. 
This target is scheduled to be reached in 2011.

The resulting concentrate will be carried 40 km by truck to a new river port at Tawfayim on Port Loko Creek, where it will be transferred to barges for shipping down to the sea and transshipped to ocean-going ships, using floating cranes. 
The company is currently building an 18-km graded road to 
link with existing public roads to make this possible.
(Originally, the output of the mine was transported by an 
84-km railway to a dedicated ship loading facility at Pepel, but these have deteriorated to the degree that they would have to be totally 
rebuilt.)

Phase two, which is expected to start in 2013, will see the restart of mining of the primary orebody, in an openpit operation. 
This will add more than 
1,5 Mpta of concentrate production, taking Marampa’s total production to more than 3 Mtpa. Phase two is expected to be funded 
by incremental cash flow generated by phase-one production.

London Mining is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and Aim of the London Stock Exchange.

Sierra Leone is Spanish for ‘Lion Mountain’.

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