Cape Lambert To Put Marampa Up For Sale In Sept -...

Cape Lambert To Put Marampa Up For Sale In Sept - Executive
21/07/2010 8:50PM


By Devon Maylie
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


LONDON (Dow Jones)--Mineral investment company Cape Lambert Resources Ltd. (CFE.AU) is conducting final resource tests for its Marampa iron ore project in Sierra Leone in preparation for putting it up for tender at the end of September, the company's executive chairman said Wednesday.

Cape Lambert finalized its purchase of Marampa from African Minerals Ltd. (AMI.LN) in 2009 and has already drawn interest from several Chinese companies including China Railway Materials Commercial Corp. and China Metallurgical Group Corp., as well as one Swiss firm, Tony Sage told Dow Jones Newswires.

African Minerals Ltd. is a major shareholder in the company with 19%.

"Our business model is different," Sage said. "I don't want to sit there and mine. We are more like a fund management."

During the past few years, junior miners have struggled to raise money for projects. Sage said Cape Lambert is one route to funding.

For Marampa, he is preparing the asset for sale later in the year.

Earlier this month, he concluded a deal with African Minerals over rail rights. For the first two years of production, which he forecasts to begin in 2012, the owner of Marampa can transport up to 2 million tons of iron ore to the nearby port by rail. That can increase to 10 million tons, he said.

Under the deal, Cape Lambert gets a 33% stake in the railway that connects the mine with the port of Pepel. African Minerals owns 57% and the Sierra Leone government 10% of the railway, Sage said.



-By Devon Maylie, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9483; [email protected]



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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 21, 2010 06:50 ET (10:50 GMT)

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