I know Hismelt was dropped in Australia,because of the cost of powering it. Hismelt type process will only work if there is cheap power like gas in close proximity. That is exactly what we have in Cameroon. Gas is directly off shore from around the Kribi area.
Pannawonica Robe River area that RIO have is nearly all CID-Detrital and Pisolitic type iron ore of under 60% Fe which is not DSO.
Compare apples with apples when talking Reserve figures and the time each company has been drilling in the Pilbara and in Cameroon/The Congo.
Unlike just about all iron ore companies around the world,SDL do not release Resource figures based on chip samples/trenching or Aero Mag results.
One unnamed other company in Cameroon before even starting drilling,said they were looking to have 25 Billion tonnes of iron ore. Others are saying they have 10 Billion tonnes of iron ore in West Africa.That company has Chinese as partners in their project.It is mainly lower grade than SDL's Itabirite,in the 20's per cent Fe.
SDL know they have other areas with high grade DSO,Meridoinal is one area,but they will not even announce a figure of any kind on it until the drilling is sufficient to give a JORC resource. SDL know that Mbarga has Itabirite down past 600mt depth and still open at depth,but will only give a resource down to the initial mine pit depth of 400mt depth. If like all others they would be saying that they have at least half as much Itabirite again at Mbarga then has been announced.Making the Mbarga only pit at least 3.5 Billion tonnes of Itabirite.
Regards Westcott.
SDL Price at posting:
52.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
