JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed junior miner Bellzone Mining said on Wednesday that it planned to lodge its mining concession application with the Guinea government shortly, which will allow it to mine the Kalia iron-ore resources in the country.
The company aimed to receive the approval in parallel with its basic convention application, which was lodged in April.
The Guinea Department of Mines and Geology noted that it had already appointed statutory technical and legal teams to lead the negotiations and approval processes.
Guinea Mines Minister Mahmoud Thiam said earlier, when the country signed a $2,5-billion iron-ore deal with Brazilian mining giant Vale, that Guinea was aiming to eventually become the world's top producer of iron-ore by accelerating development of its huge deposits.
Bellzone is developing the 2,4-billion ton Joint Ore Reserve Committee (Jorc) magnetite Kalia iron-ore project along an estimated 13-billion ton magnetite deposit in Guinea.
The company planned to develop the $4,45-billion project in a two-staged approach, ramping up production to 20-million tons a year of iron-ore by the first quarter of 2014, and then increasing output to 50-million tons a year by 2018.
Bellzone MD Nic Zuks said that following an initial public offering, the company had the funds in place to accelerate work on increasing and upgrading the magnetite Jorc resource as well as establish a maiden resource for the oxide at surface.
The iron-ore company raised about $50-million by listing on Aim, and planned to use the proceeds to complete the long-lead stages of a bankable feasibility study (BFS) at Kalia.
Further, the company reported that it had awarded a contract to consulting company, SGS Environment, to undertake socioeconomic and environmental studies at Kalia. The studies form part of the long-lead items of the BFS that was expected for completion by mid-2011.
Meanwhile, Sutron Technologies had also started the downhole survey. The collected data would be used to calculate the extension and upgrade of the Kalia resource, which the company expected to publish in the second and third quarter of the year.
Bellzone planned to announce initial oxide Jorc resource details in December.
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