From today's The Australian:(Excellent news both for the sale of...

From today's The Australian:

(Excellent news both for the sale of Marampa, and for CFE's continued exploration in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/ore-demand-out-of-this-world-says-rio/story-e6frg9df-1226127659042

"RIO Tinto expects iron ore demand to increase by at least 800 million tonnes a year over the next eight years, which is more than the combined existing production of Australia and Brazil, the world's two biggest iron ore exporters.

Rio is looking at providing for at least 200 million tonnes of this itself through expansions in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and through its planned $US10 billion-plus ($9.3bn) Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, which it admits is on an ambitious production timetable.

Speaking at the Africa Downunder conference in Perth yesterday, Rio's iron ore expansion managing director, David Joyce, said more minerals would need to be mined in the next 20 years than had been in the past 10,000 to meet developing world demand.

"In the case of iron ore, we expect that over the next eight years, global supply additions need to be at the rate of at least 100 million tonnes each year to satisfy growth," Mr Joyce said.

"This represents a staggering increase in demand."

As well as the regularly highlighted potential of China and India to drive demand, Rio expects Indonesian, Vietnamese, African and South American industrialisation and urbanisation to contribute.

Mr Joyce, who refused to take questions from the media after his presentation, highlighted that the Guinean government-prescribed timetable for Simandou would be challenging.

"We remain committed to ambitious timeframes of shipping our first tonnes of iron ore by mid-2015 and are working closely with the government and our partners to make this a reality," Mr Joyce said.

Rio still has not announced a port site or the exact 650km railway route that will take the 95 million tonnes of iron ore it is planning to mine at Simandou to market.

Earlier this year, Rio agreed to pay the Guinea government $700 million and a give it a stake in the project just to hang on to its two mining tenements. It was earlier stripped of two other tenements to the north by the previous Guinea government, which gave them to an Israeli diamond dealer who then struck a $2.5 billion deal to bring in Brazil's Vale as a partner.

Mr Joyce said construction of the Benga coal project in Mozambique, which it acquired with Riversdale Mining earlier this year, was "well under way"."


Yaq