Study indicates significant potential for low operating cost at Mebaga
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed iron-ore and manganese development company Ferrex on Wednesday announced that a desktop study at its Mebaga direct shipping ore (DSO) iron-ore project in northern Gabon had indicated that there was significant potential for low operating costs.
The desktop study included two operational scenarios, namely a one-million tonnes DSO a year and a three-million tonnes DSO a year scenario.
"We are encouraged by the results of this desktop study which, with a free-on-board cost of between $41/t and $45/t for both operational scenarios, demonstrates the significant potential for low operating costs.
“Importantly, independent marketing agents have confirmed that Mebaga's ore, which has low levels of silica, alumina and phosphor, should be sold at a premium to the 62% iron benchmark price.
“When the low capital expenditure estimations are coupled with a premium benchmark DSO price and the fact that we will use a large amount of existing infrastructure, the potential returns for Mebaga look very exciting,” Ferrex MD Dave Reeves said.
Meanwhile, the study also found that the project had a significant benefit as the closest DSO project to the Libreville port in the Belinga Super Group area.
Reeves added that the company was now focused on closing a new funding option for the project and intended to start drilling in the next dry season, which would be December this year or January 2015.
“This drill programme will be followed by a more in-depth scoping study that will investigate the operating costs in more detail and define the capital costs associated with the project,” Reeves concluded.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation