Iron ore supportDEUTSCHE Bank says iron ore's near-term support...

Iron ore support

DEUTSCHE Bank says iron ore's near-term support is intact. Chinese inventories are not excessive and Brazil's Vale has lowered 2014 and 2015 output projects by a total of 21 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, London broker Ocean Equities has welcomed the move by Mamba Minerals (MAB) to merge with Canada's Champion Iron Mines. Both have projects in Canada's Labrador Trough, the huge iron ore potential of which was explained in this space in January. Mamba's is an early-stage project while Champion's is one of the most advanced in the trough.

Ocean reckons there aren't too many people in the industry like Andrew Forrest or Robert Friedland who can get big projects into development.

But Mamba chairman Michael O'Keeffe is someone who can get the merged company into mining.

He was MD at Glencore Australia and then ran Riversdale Mining, taking it from an $8 million company with coal in Mozambique to a $3.9bn takeover target.

Ocean also continues to enthuse about Equatorial Resources (EQX), which has just upgraded by 78 per cent its iron ore resource in Republic of Congo.