Aim-listed iron-ore and manganese development company Ferrex is well on its way to establishing an in-country network to support its Mebaga direct shipping ore (DSO) iron-ore project, in northern Gabon, West Africa, as the project is moving towards the scoping study phase, says Ferrex MD Dave Reeves.

The company has signed a drilling contract with specialised exploration and drilling company Geoserve and is targeting a maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource in the second half of this year.

The initial drilling is expected to take two to three months, with two in-country rigs to be mobilised immediately on site to test the main 1.8 km zone of iron-ore mineralisation at the Mebaga deposit to depths of 250 m.

“The signing of the drilling contract is a significant step that will allow us to move this project forward and test the near-term DSO resource potential,” Reeves says.

Meanwhile, the project’s camp con- struction is also complete and an experienced local geologist has been appointed, he adds.

Ferrex was granted the 309 km2 Ngama exploration licence, which covered the high-grade Mebaga iron-ore deposit, in January.

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

Ferrex, which owns 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.

“Meanwhile, the processing of regional magnetic data is another milestone reached by the project,” Reeves says.

Regional airborne magnetic and radio- metric data has been acquired from data collection company Fugro Gravity & Magnetic Services.

More than 40 000 line kilometres of data have been acquired, at a nominal line spacing of 1 km and flying height of 120 m. In addition, almost 2 000 line kilometres of data flown at a height of 196 m and a nominal line spacing of 250 m were acquired over the Mebaga banded iron formation (BIF) trend.
Magnetic images emphasise the Mebaga trend’s incorporation of the most extensive outcropping BIF horizon in northern Gabon outside of the Belinga trend, which hosts the giant Belinga iron-ore. These images suggest that about 80% of the footprint of the Mebaga BIF horizon lies within Ferrex’s Mebaga concession.
A three-dimensional model of the more detailed data shows intervals of demagnetisation along parts of the BIF trend, possibly indicative of near-surface oxidation and potential hematite minerali- sation.

Additionally, the model highlights several inferred fold closures and faults that cut the BIF that could have been important in the development of high-grade iron-ore mineralisation.

“Our technical team is confident that there are additional areas of high grade iron mineralisation in the Mebanga trend,” Reeves says.

Further, Ferrex states that the project has excellent infrastructure in place – 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.