Photo by: Bloomberg
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore developer African Minerals (AML) confirmed on Friday that it had achieved its export production level for 2013, exporting 12.1-million tonnes of iron-ore from its flagship Tonkolili project, in Sierra Leone.
This was an almost threefold improvement on the 4.1-million tonnes sold in 2012, and was in line with the company’s yearly guidance of between 11-million and 13-million tonnes.
The company loaded 12.2-million tonnes of iron-ore onto ships in 2013, with the third and fourth quarters contributing 2.8-million and 3.8-million tonnes respectively.
Nine ocean-going vessels were loaded in December, for a December sales tonnage of 1.6-million tonnes, while the tenth vessel had been partially loaded by the end of the month.
CEO Bernie Pryor said the 2013 guidance had been comfortably met.
“We continue to work towards a production consistency across the complete integrated logistics chain and remain confident of achieving the 20-million-tonne-a-year sustainable run rate as our ramp-up continues in 2014,” he commented.
AML’s 75%-owned Tonkolili project, which boasts a 60 year mine life, was being developed in a number of staged expansions, with the current project operations expected to produce 20-million tonnes a year of iron-ore at full capacity.
This production run-rate was first achieved in June last year.
The next stage of project expansion, Phase 2, contemplated the production of an increased tonnage of 64% high-grade hematite concentrate, with the first saprolite plant expected to enter production in 2016.
The company had also developed significant port and rail infrastructure to support the operation of the project.