Concord Times (Freetown)
Tanu Jalloh
22 September 2009
Freetown — On the crust top of Simbili Hills in the Tonkolili district and in the company of ministry officials and African Minerals executives, minister of mineral resources Alhaji Alpha Kanu broke the news - tens of billions of tones of iron ore await operation.
On a conducted tour of the operations of the company led by its directors, Mr. Kanu sought to get first hand genuine information plus an insight into the multi billion dollar ore project since he became minister.
Some 5.1 billion tonnes JORC compliant mineral resource (The code for reporting of mineral resources and ore reserves)has been reported for Simbili, Numbara and Marampon around this same area, Tonkolili.
Apart from these mines the mineral exploration company, with significant interests in the country, holds an extensive portfolio of mineral rights covering the North Sula Mountains, Panpana River, Gondama, Port Loko, Masimera, Jombohun, Tabe River, Fala, Baoma, Pejehun, Bumpeh and Yengema, Kamalu, Lake Popei, Blama and Lunsar all dotted across the country for potential drilling.
Apparently au fait with some or all of these specifics, minister Kanu, a geologist by discipline with a wealth of experience in drilling and exploration, knew exactly what he was saying. He estimated the Tonkolili iron ore project to be around tens of billions of tones when mining commences by end of this year and reaches it full potentials in 2012.
Back to the Ferengbeya camp, senior geologist Joseph Lebbie - the first Sierra Leonean to have been employed by the company when it started exploration in 2006 - explained how far they have come and gave a summary of the geology of the country with aero maps surveys.
He said these surveys were initially done by Canadians hired to handle the northeast and southeast of what he called aeromagnetic. Before the project kicked off on Simbili Hills, technical data had earlier been put together by specialist ground engineering company, Ghanaian based Coffey International Limited, one of the top 300 companies on the Australian stock exchange.
Lebbie also disclosed that trenches had to be relocated and expanded upon after an extension of the lifespan of an earlier license the company acquired from the government. When exploration first started most of the samples were sent to Guinea. Although the efforts were so expensive, prospecting for Nikel and more was still ongoing in the east.
The 18-month of trenching, according geologist Lebbie, started in 2006 with a couple of holes to ascertain the massive ore volume of primary elements. They had to manage with the rigs available then while further investments were being made to undertake dipper drilling holes to intercept the first layer.
"Given the topography, an average of 145 metres is required to slash out the first layer," he said.
Some 653.2 meters deep at the moment, Lebbie noted that they were targeting 1000 meters drilling on Simbili Hills envisaging some 2.5 billion tones based on initial resource calculation. He said the EDM 2000 drilling system, one of over six such drilling machines across the mining precincts with capacity to drill 2000 meters deep, works nonstop for 13 days in a row. When on contractor the multi system, which drills both diamonds and reverse circulation, consumes two drums of diesel in 12 hours.
After a day's work and tour of the facilities of the company, minister Alpha Kan said he was impressed. He was already optimistic although the company noted on its website that it was planning to complete the feasibility study by the middle of next year, while the shipment of its first product from Tonkolili was expected to take place in 2012. He made some calculations and arrived at encouragingly huge returns in terms of taxes and percentage to government.
Giving a rough estimate of what the future holds for the country, the minister said: "That alone would be enough to turn around the woes of this country. Soon we may not be mining diamonds but iron ore; just iron ore to give a facelift to this country and its people who have suffered for long time."
According to him, when the project would have materialized to its fullest potentials the country would be looking forward to at least US$3 billion. Half of this rough estimate, he said, was enough to change Sierra Leone, at least from its present form.
On the following day, Saturday September 5, 2009, he got into his mackintosh, fully prepared to tour development projects being undertaken and those already completed as part of the company's corporate social responsibilities. Hi first stop was at Gbongoba community primary school. Here a six-class room block has been built with furniture provided; 450 pupils from classes one to six have been awarded scholarships and all teachers paid by the African Minerals Limited, yet to start mining proper.
The chairman and CEO Frank Timis once said that: "This is a very large step towards us realizing the full potential of our world-class iron-ore deposit at Tonkolili and the future infrastructure rehabilitation and construction work will in due course provide positive benefits to the local community and the economy of Sierra Leone."
While the company hopes to fast-track the definitive feasibility studies into the construction of port, rail and power infrastructure projects surrounding Tonkolili, which it was aiming to have completed as earlier as possible, two senior specialists told the minister at the Wusum Hotel in Makeni that they were using the most recent equipment to complete survey of the Pepel, Tagrin and Marampa - Tonkolili railway. They have already started work from the Tagrin axis.
These experts are expected to complete their work anytime soon and provide all necessary information to the African Railway & Port Services (African Minerals' subsidiary) which finalized a 99-year lease last year for the Pepel port and for the Pepel - Marampa - Tonkolili railway, covering the redevelopment of the said infrastructure. They said probably the railway would have to take a primary route because of the extensive damage that has been caused to the extant structure.
The implementation of this infrastructure would allow it to develop a substantial mining operation in the country. In terms of the lease, the company would undertake an engineering study into the upgrade of the deep-water port and the existing railway between Pepel, Tagrin and Marampa. If these proved viable, it would upgrade, operate and maintain the port and the railway and make these available to other users at commercial rates.
The company was also looking into extending the railway to the Tonkolili project, which would allow it to cost-effectively transport its iron-ore to the port for export. It would also operate this extension of the railway.
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