Siera Leone: African Minerals Announces Pepel Port Development Plans

African Minerals has decided to expand existing rail and port infrastructure at Pepel rather than develop a new port at Tagrin Point.

This decision follows a scoping level review of expansion options as it continues to ramp up production at the Tonkolili iron ore mine in Sierra Leone.

It says this will result in substantial capital savings of around $1bn over the previous expansion plan, with reduced risk, and lower social and environmental impact.

Chief executive Keith Calder said: “We have made good progress with value engineering and optimisation in our Tonkolili mine expansion strategy.

“While our strategy regarding the mine and plant is mostly unchanged, we have now decided to leverage our existing rail and port infrastructure at Pepel to achieve the expanded export tonnage.

“This will significantly reduce capital costs, and de-risk the project’s delivery, whilst at the same time reducing social and environmental impacts.

“This approach will provide a significantly better value, capital efficiency and risk proposition for all of our stakeholders.”

[mappress]

Source: stockmarketwire, December 18, 2012; Image: sierraexpressmedia