JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Work undertaken by London-listed Sula Iron & Gold on its Ferensola iron project, in Sierra Leone, over the past year has increased the technical value of the asset by more than 50%.

The iron, gold and coltan miner on Tuesday said a review by SRK Exploration Services showed an increase in the technical value of the licence area to $56-million, with the maximum potential value of the exploration asset reaching $210-million.

“I am delighted with both the technical and potential values that SRK has given to Sula's assets at our Ferensola project. We have demonstrably unlocked and enhanced shareholder value during 2014 and are determined to replicate that during 2015,” Sula CEO Nick Warrell commented.

SRK based its views on the available geological information, the status of the assets and the probability of its success; however, it did not factor in market sentiment and any potential investor's valuation could differ on the back of their own views of the current or future status of the mining industry and Sula’s financial position.

The 153 km2 Ferensola licence was situated along an elongated chain some 120 km long and 16 km wide, forming an open, northerly-trending arc containing Sierra Leone’s richest and most historic goldfields.

In December, Sula declared the project’s maiden resource, which showed an indicated mineral resource of 17.6-million tonnes grading 45.6% iron (Fe), 15.6% silicon dioxide (SiO2), 9.7% aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and 0.07% phosphorus (P) and an inferred mineral resource of 496.9-million tonnes grading 31.3% Fe, 41.88% SiO2, 5.27% Al2O3 and 0.05% P.

At the time, SRK suggested that, in addition to the potential for alluvial, eluvial and primary pegmatite-hosted columbite-tantalite mineralisation within the Ferensola licence area, the region could boast a similar style of gold mineralisation to that seen at Amara Mining’s Baomahun deposit, owing to similarities in the geological settings of the deposits.

The current resource and reserve estimates at the Baomahun gold deposit were 23.3-million tonnes at 1.62 g/t gold (Au) in the probable resource category out of a total indicated resource of 38.4-million tonnes at 1.82 g /t Au, while an additional inferred resource of 6.6-million tonnes at 2.52 g/t Au had been estimated.