I did not post about Africa because of SDL's involvement.
I posted because quite a few African Projects have High Grade DSO at or near surface. Little if any drilling and blasting needed.
A few projects in Guinea and at least 6 in a cluster close to the borders of Cameroon, **on and The Congo Republic. All within a 150kl distance of each other. All of these have DSO Caps with Itabirite style iron ore directly below. Beneficiates into High Grade Concentrate and Pellet Feed around 65%Fe to 69%Fe.
BHP and RIO cannot compete with this Concentrate and Pellet Feed Grade.
BHP and Rio can't compete with these projects shipping iron ore into Europe, The Middle East and Arab States.
Avima and Mbalam/Nabeba High Grade DSO I believe will be Higher Grade DSO than BHP and RIO export to China.
The Itabirite ore at Mbalam is after the first 50mt's of DSO and goes down to at least 600mt's depth, and is still open at that depth and as wide at 600mt'S as it is at 50mt's deep.
Avima (private owned by a Greek named Australian) is very much the same, Badondo (EQX) looks like it will be the same with the DSO and then Itabirite. Then there is Belinga, Boka Boka and a few others with High grade DSO in the area.
BHP have pulled out of Guinea, RIO is still there, but at $15 to $20 Billion to get Simandou up and running could still be many years off if ever.
These Central African Projects around the Congo Republic,**on and Cameroon have only drilled the tip of their known strike areas and are talking in one case of 13 to 17 billion tonnes of Itabirite.
Their strip ratio's are very low compared to BHP and RIO strip ratio's in The Pilbara.
They, Avima and Mbalam/Nabeba cost to produce will be very low.
BHP and RIO will be hard pushed to produce lower than those two projects. One at 35Mtpa have a cost around $22 per tonne with building a 550kls Rail, Two Mine sites and a Deep water Port to allow ChinaMax 300,000 Dwt tonne ships in to Port.
One has now said 40Mtpa, but I believe it will start at 50Mtpa and then increase. That will bring down their production cost even further.
This company has been for many years compared to FMG at its beginning.
The one Glencore were involved with was not a High Grade Project.
Glencore are involved with the Avima project in the area I have spoken about, also Severstal the Russian Steel Mill Company involved with Glencore in that company.
The others who have gone under are in West Africa, not Central West Africa. Those two companies were Low Grade, low 20's to low 30's5fe Magnetite projects, Not DSO Projects.
Yes I was exposed to UMC.
I am having a go at BHP and RIO mainly for what they are doing to ALL other miners in The Pilbara. Funny when FMG asked to be allowed to share RIO and BHP Rail lines and pay a fee to use the lines. BHP and RIO said they had NO free space on their Rail Lines.
How much were RIO and BHP exporting 18 months to 2 years ago when they said their rail capacity was full? What amount extra are they railing to Port Headland now and still talking about exporting more?
The West Australian and Federal Governments need to investigate BHP and RIO Court documents over the reasons they said they could not allow FMG, AGO and others to use their Rail Systems.
As far as Roy Hill is concerned, their grade and cost has been online and in the press.
Bell Potter 11/03/15 gave All-in delivered cost to China (62% index equiv) for AGO $63 - BCI - $61 and FMG - $56.
Regards
Westcott.
FMG Price at posting:
$1.82 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
(20min delay)