AIM-listed exploration com- pany Sable Mining Africa has been granted a mining licence for its Nimba iron-ore project, in south-west Guinea.
The licence was issued to the company’s 80%-owned subsidiary, West Africa Exploration, and signed by Guinea President Alpha Conde. It covers the initial area of focus at Nimba – a 23 km2 area covering portions of Plateaux 2 and Plateaux 3 of the 123.5 km2 Nimba project, which has a current Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant resource of 135.5-million tons.

The mining licence and addi- tional licensing, such as an export decree and environmental approvals, will enable the com- pany to seek finance for the construction of a mine at Nimba, which will ramp up to about five-million tons of iron-ore a year from initial commercial production in 2015.
The company began exploration activities in the first quarter of last year and also undertook a drilling programme, which began in the second quarter of last year, over the mining licence area. An additional drilling programme started earlier this year, focusing on a 200 m × 3.9 km extension area covering parts of Plateau 2 and Plateau 3.

The latest programme highlighted significant high-grade direct shipping ore (DSO) mineralisation, including an intersection measuring 36 m at 62% iron, which includes 2.8 m of cavities.

These drilling campaigns have enabled the delineation of the current Jorc resources of 135.5-million tons and tested the extension area over Plateaux 2 and Plateaux 3, which the company believes will enable it to increase its total resource towards the exploration target of 200-million tons being targeted at Nimba during the fourth quarter of 2013.

In addition to high-grade DSO tonnages at or very close to surface, metallurgical results from Nimba have indicated that production should benefit from a simple crush and screen process.
The high lump fraction should enable production to start with a dry plant, with no beneficiation required, which should considerably reduce the upfront capex requirements faced by many iron-ore developers.

A Sable Mining spokesperson says the company has produced encouraging metallurgical results to date, which have indicated that a simple wet wash screen will produce product grading between 60% and 63%.

“Because the valley-fill channel ore contains far less clay than peers with hill-top weathering ore, to which high clay is inherent, a simple wet wash screen will definitively produce high-quality product at no risk. “Better still, there may be capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure savings, as hard-pan lump would only need a dry plant during the early years. “Further, the ore is a premium product, with essentially no deleterious elements above penalty levels,” the spokesperson notes.
The processing method will significantly reduce the upfront capex required to bring the project on stream, which will, in turn, enhance returns on investment in Nimba’s development.

Sable Mining CEO Andrew Groves says the granting of the licence is a landmark achievement for Sable Mining and will pave the way for the company to begin development of this world-class high-tonnage, high-DSO-grade and low-capex iron-ore asset.
“I would like to thank the government of the Republic of Guinea for their continued support for the development of Nimba, which we believe to be a highly valuable deposit of strategic importance. “We will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities to ensure the timely issuance of our export decree, while remaining focused on the resource upgrade, rail allocation and prefeasibility study publication, which are all expected by the end of 2013,” he says.