Australia’s Cape Lambert says in its recently published scoping study that discussions with interested parties regarding asset level sale of its Marampa project is still open and continuing, executive chairperson Tony Sage said on Friday.
The company published a scoping study on an expanded production capacity for the Marampa iron-ore project and is looking at assessing options for an outright trade sale or for equity investment options.
Cape Lambert is also advancing plans to list Marampa on London’s Aim and that it would do so when favourable market conditions returned.
The released scoping study on an expanded production profile for Marampa returned what the company termed as “robust” results.
The 15-million-ton-a-year study evaluated an increase in concentrate production from the previously evaluated ten-million-tons-a-year study, and aligned the transport solution for Marampa with the terms of the infrastructure agreement between Cape Lambert’s subsidiary and African Railway & Port Services.
The infrastructure agreement provided Marampa with access rights to export some two-million tons a year of concentrate through the recently refurbished Pepel rail and port infrastructure, with the project also having the opportunity to export a further 16.5-million tons of concentrate through the proposed Tagrin deep-water port, when it becomes operational.
The new scoping study was based on establishing a standalone open pit mining operation with a wet, high-intensity magnetic separation concentrator and associated infrastructure.
The project would initially produce at a rate of 2.5-million tons a year of high-grade hematite concentrate, and would expand to 15-million tons a year within two years, after Stage 1 production started.
The scoping study found that a total investment of some $157-million would be required, with the Marampa project expected to have an after-tax net present value of $1.56-billion and an internal rate of return of 26.2%.
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