selling, page-19

Thought this may be of interest to SDL holders - just goes to show if you have the resource you can get the backing:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aSZ.f6awVXnI&refer=africa

Congo Says Investors to Spend $10 Billion on Iron-Ore Project

By Franz Wild

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli and Indian investors will spend as much as $10 billion developing what the Democratic Republic of Congo says is Africa's biggest iron-ore project.

The operation will take two to three years to start with initial iron-ore output of 15 million metric tons a year, Victor Kasongo, Congo's vice minister of mines, said today in a phone interview from the capital, Kinshasa. Annual production will eventually climb to 50 million tons, he added.

``This will be the biggest iron project in Africa and one of the top three in the world,'' Kasongo said.

The iron ore will be transported 2,150 kilometers to Congo's Atlantic coast for export, he said. A steel mill will be part of the project, he added, declining to name the investors. Iron-ore prices by 9.5 percent in last year's annual contracts with steelmakers and may rise as much as 70 percent this year, Credit Suisse said Feb. 1.

Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. operates Africa's biggest iron-ore mine at Sishen, which produced 28.7 million tons in 2006. Kumba is 63 percent owned by Anglo American Plc, the world's second-biggest mining company.

Rio Tinto Group said on Feb. 5 that its Simandou iron-ore project in Guinea may eventually produce 170 million tons of the steel-making ingredient a year. Initial output from the west African nation will be about 70 million tons.

To contact the reporter on this story: Franz Wild in Kinshasa via Johannesburg at [email protected]

Last Updated: February 13, 2008 06:04 EST