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Sphere Minerals Limited is a West African focused iron ore company which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (Code: SPH). The Company has secured three large scale iron ore projects in Mauritania.


Guelb el Aouj

The Company’s flagship project is the the Guelb el Aouj Iron Ore (magnetite) Project in Mauritania, West Africa. Sphere is developing the Guelb el Aouj Iron Ore Project in partnership with Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM), Mauritania’s state-owned iron ore producer.

The Guelb el Aouj project will include an open cut mine, beneficiation and pelletising plants to produce high grade Direct Reduction (DR) pellets for export, utilising joint venture partner SNIM's existing iron ore railway and port infrastructure.

In October 2009, Sphere updated Exploration Targets for the magnetite-quartzite deposits within the Exploitation Licence to 1,500Mt – 2,050Mt.

Lebtheinia

Sphere has an exploration licence for EL264 which covers the Lebtheinia magnetite-quartzite deposits. The deposit has a strike length of 24km and is strategically located 50km from SNIM’s railway line and 180km from the iron ore port of Nouadhibou. In October 2009, Sphere Minerals announced an updated JORC Code compliant Mineral Resource of 2,742Mt for Lebtheinia Centre Deposit, one of four deposits contained in two adjacent licenses that are 100% owned by Sphere. This Mineral Resource includes 2,179Mt of Indicated Resource and 563Mt of Inferred Resource.

Askaf

The Askaf Project covers the exploration licence EL172, located 35km south of the Guelb el Aouj Project Area and adjacent to SNIM’s iron ore railway. The 194km2 Askaf exploration licence includes six magnetite-quartzite deposits.  A maiden Inferred Resource of 319Mt for the Askaf North deposit was announced on 31 May 2010.

Metallurgical test results from Askaf confirm that a Sinter Feed Blend product  of 65-67.8% Fe can be produced from a simple dry magnetic separation process.   The company is now targeting a low capex, fast-track development plan with first shipment in Q1/2012 with a production of 6Mt/a magnetite sinter feed blend (SFB) product based on a staged development strategy:

  • 2Mt/a Start-up Phase for US$220 million - target commissioning Q4/2011, with first shipment Q1/2012.
  • 4Mt/a Expansion Phase for incremental US$320 million, to be funded from cashflow - target completion 2015.