Guinea's Nimba iron ore project gets green light to export via Liberia (updated)

Falcon Energy Materials

11/10/2019 21:01

(Adds detail about terms of export authorisation)
    CONAKRY, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Guinea and Liberia signed a deal
on Friday to allow several mines in Guinea, including the giant
Nimba iron ore project, to export through Liberia, officials
from the West African countries said.
    The logistics of transporting tonnes of raw materials to
port from mining sites in remote parts of Guinea has been a
major hurdle for prospective developers of the country's vast
mineral wealth.
    The agreement, which builds on an initial memorandum of
understanding signed six years ago, is a victory for
U.S.-Canadian investor Robert Friedland's HPX, which last month
acquired Nimba, a high-grade deposit in southeast Guinea.
    "The mining projects in question are near the border with
Liberia and cannot be profitable if they export through Guinea's
coast," Guinea's mines Minister Abdoulaye Magassouba told
Reuters.
    A graphite project owned by SRG Mining  SRG.V  and a Zali
Mining project would also be able to export through Liberia
under the deal, Magassouba said. 
    The authorisation to export via Liberia applies to the first
5 million tonnes produced at the mines, Magassouba said, beyond
which the government will evaluate the feasibility of exporting
via a 650-kilometre railway to the Guinean coast.
    The "Transguineen" railway is to be built by the eventual
owner of the much larger Simandou iron ore project, which the
government insists must export through a Guinean port. Fortescue
 FMG.AX  and SMB-Winning have bid to develop the mine.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N26P4VZ 
    Zogota, a nearby iron ore deposit owned by former Xstrata
boss Mick Davis' Niron Metals, has already negotiated an
agreement to export through Liberia.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2202VS
    But Nimba and Zogota still need to reach agreements with
Germany's ArcelorMittal  MT.AS , the sole rail concession holder
in Liberia, to allow them to use its infrastructure.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N22P6HT
    ArcelorMittal  MT.AS  declined to provide an immediate
comment.
    

 (Reporting by Saliou Samb, Writing by Helen Reid; Editing by
Aaron Ross, Deepa Babington and Richard Chang)
 ((Helen.Reid@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 0402;))