Australia’s Sundance to accelerate work on West African iron ore project

January 10, 2007 Filed Under: Iron Ore Mining, Mining Services  

Emerging Australian listed iron ore company Sundance Resources Ltd said it plans to accelerate a pre-feasibility study and and exploration program at its Mbalam iron ore project in West Africa after receiving shareholder approval today to complete the second tranche of a 30 mln aud capital raising.

The funds are being raised through a placement priced at 0.08 aud a share to Australian and international institutional investors.

Including the construction of rail and port facilities the project is likely to cost more than 2.46 bln usd to establish a long-term operation producing 35 mln tons a year of direct ship hematite ore.

Sundance chairman George Jones said the company is now well funded to complete a pre-feasibility drilling program this year aimed at a confirming the potential to support a resource of one bln metric tons of high-grade hematite at Mbalam in the Republic of Cameroon.
“The Mbalam project is potentially a world-class hematite project, strategically located midway between European and Asian markets,” Jones said.

Jones said the company hopes to develop the project as quickly as possible to take advantage of an iron ore market which he believes will remain strong for a number of years.

“Clearly, the scale of the project requires us to establish key relationships with the Cameroon government and the international iron ore industry, particularly significant players in global steel production and marketing,” Jones said.

He said Sundance has already received approaches from a number of major companies but did not name them.