CCC Mining rejoins Bestway-Austsino consortium to accelerate project, page-4

This slipped under the radar at the time, but also appeared on Bougna.net.
FYI, translated:

Iron of Mbalam/Nabeba: CCC Mining comes in reinforcement with Bestway Finance and AustSino Resources

By Bougna.net - 3 December 2022





It is a major reinforcement that the consortium has just hadBestway/AustSino Resources on the iron mining project ofMbalam in Cameroon and Nabeba in Congo. In a statement releasedon November 29, AustSino Resources Ltd, announces that it has signed amemorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese CCC Mining GroupLimited (CCCM). Company that will exploit the Mbalam iron deposit,thanks to the operating permit granted on August 17th.

In this project, CCC Mining Group Ltd will be responsible for constructing the 540kilometers of railway (the largest part, 510 will be built inCameroon) intended to link Cameroon and the Congo. An essential linein the transport of ore from the mines to the Port of Kribi, where the saidore will then be exported.

On the port platform, the project also provides for the construction of aore terminal with the capacity to transport, receive andprocess 125 million tonnes of iron ore per year.The entry of CCC Mining into the project occurs when the coursesiron markets are experiencing a lull. Started from $114.37 per tonin January, they reached up to 159 dollars per ton in March, forfinish at $106.75 currently (December 2022).

It is far, very far from the 80 dollars of forecasts fixed by the consortiumBestway Finance/Autsino Resources last March, during thesignature of the public-private partnership contract with the State of Cameroon.

In an interview granted to BOUGNA this same month of March,Alexandre MBIAM, Chief Executive Officer of Bestway Finance Ltd,in an analysis of world iron prices during the year 2021,already relativized the impact of fluctuations on the project.

“From July 31, we actually observed a fallvertiginous rise in the price of iron. We went from over $215 aton, to less than 80 dollars at the end of September. It was under the influence ofChinese policy aimed at reducing emissions, and protectingenvironment," he said.

“To do this, they have frozen steel production for the year 2021 atsame level as that of 2020. However, there had been a large increase inmore than 12% during the first half of 2021. This has forced, for thesecond half, to reach the same level as in 2020, to decreaseproduction by almost 25%”.

"This is what led to a dizzying drop in the price of the firstcommodity used to make steel, namely iron. Behind there ishad the real estate crisis that we know on the side of the Republicpopular in China. All of this has led to downward pressure on iron,which reached less than 90 dollars per ton in October, before recoveringtoday around 140 dollars per ton”.

“We are confident about the project. Although it is true, oureconomic model allows us to look at things calmlyup to $80 a ton,” he concluded.The public-private partnership contract signed in March 2022 concerns theconstruction and operation of a railway line lasting 50years, and a port concession which belongs to the regime of concessionsregulated ports of the Autonomous Port of Kribi spread over 50 years.

For Alexandre MBIAM, “these two contracts lead us today tocomplete the final technical studies, and then start the programof construction, with the aim of being in operation by the end of 2025”.



Translated from source:
https://bougna.net/2022/12/03/routes/chemin-de-fer/fer-de-mbalam-nabeba-ccc-mining-vient-en-renfort-aupres-de-bestway-finance-et-austsino-resources/



And sorry Bougna.net, your right-click disable is absolutely pointless!!!