Overview
| Stage | Pre-Feasibility |
| Mine Type | Open Pit |
| Commodities |
|
| Mining Method |
|
| Mine Life | 15 years (as of Jan 1, 2021) |
The Nimba Iron Ore Project is a Tier 1 deposit containing extremely high grade, low impurity, direct shipping ore and is considered one of the best undeveloped iron ore resources in the world. |
Source:
p. 1
SMFG is an 85% owned subsidiary of High Power Exploration (HPX).
Contractors
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Summary:
The Nimba and Simandou greenstone belts are significant structures within the Archaean basement in the Guinea-Liberia border area (Thiéblemont et al., 2004). The Nimba greenstone belt is a 1400 m-thick sequence of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks which extends for a total length of 45 km, with 25 km in Liberia and the remainder to the northeast along the border zone of Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire (Berge, 1974). Dating of detrital zircons in quartzite has placed the Nimba greenstone belt as latest Archaean to early Palaeoproterozoic (Billa et al., 1999), the same age as the Simandou belt in Guinea.
Historically iron ore has been exploited from both the Liberian and the Guinean sectors of the Nimba greenstone belt. In Liberia, the main Nimba ore body, now mined out, was located in one of two parallel bands of Archaean BIF with a north-east strike (Berge et al., 1977). The rocks in the Nimba belt are divided into two major units, the Yekepa Supergroup, comprising gneisses and orthoamphibolites with a dominant north–south structural trend, and the younger Nimba Supergroup, which consists of a basal conglomerate overlain by amphibole schists of volcanic origin, succeeded by metasedimentary formations comprising phyllites, the Nimba itabirite and the iron ores (Berge, 1974). The contact between the Nimba Supergroup and the underlying Yekepa Supergroup was interpreted as a regional unconformity, similar to that observed in the Simandou area of Guinea, located about 100 ........
Summary:
The proposed Nimba Iron Ore Project is located in the Guinean Nimba Mountains, in south-eastern Guinea, adjacent to the Liberian and Ivoirian borders. It involves mining high-grade haematite from two open pits at high elevations in a mining concession of 6.25 square kilometres, at the northern end of the mountain range. The ore is extremely high-grade and friable with almost no impurities (e.g. silica, phosphorus, aluminium oxides), little to no overburden covering the ore, and minimal waste-rock throughout the life of the mine. No tailings dam is required.
The mining process is not technically complicated: ore would be extracted from the surface of the pit.
Source:
Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Projected Production:
| Commodity | Units | Avg. Annual | LOM |
|
Iron Ore
|
Mt
| 30 | 450 |
All production numbers are expressed as lump & fines.
Reserves at March 19, 2014:
Cut-Off 40% Fe
| Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade |
|
Indicated
|
134.4 Mt
|
Iron
|
59.4 %
|
|
Inferred
|
44 Mt
|
Iron
|
57.7 %
|
|
Total Resource
|
178.4 Mt
|
Iron
|
59 %
|
Commodity Production Costs:
| | Commodity | Units | Average |
|
Cash costs
|
Iron Ore
|
USD
|
......
|
|
Assumed price
|
Iron Ore
|
USD
|
......
|
* According to 2021 study / presentation.
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2021 Study Costs and Valuation Metrics :
| Metrics | Units | LOM Total |
|
Pre-Production capital costs
|
$M USD
|
......
|
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Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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