Sierra Leone
The Marampa mine is located 125km by road north-east of Freetown and 40km by dedicated hau l road from tidewater at the Thofeyim river terminal. The Marampa deposit was first discovered in 1926 and open pit production was commenced by the Sierra Leone Development Company (“Delco”) and William Baird between 1933 and 1975. By the 1960’s iron ore production had reached 2 Mtpa before low iron ore prices forced the mines closure. Continuing weak market economics and the civil war prevented redevelopment of the mine until the mining licence was acquired by London Mining in 2006.
London Mining secured an option to acquire the mining rights at the Marampa mine in December 2005. After securing funding, London Mining was abl e to exercise the option in January 2006 and in September 2006 the Marampa mining lease was assigned to LMC, a 100% subsidiary of London Mining . The Marampa mine recommenced production in December 2011.
London Mining is developing Marampa in stages. The current operation will be expanded to a capacity of 5Mtpa of high quality sinter concentrate in 2013 with the resource able to support a mine life of over 30 years at this rate.A bankable feasibility study outlining an expansion to 9Mtpa was completed in Q4 2012.A PFS was completed in April 2011 for a further expansion to over 16Mtpa of concentrate from the remainder of the Marampa ore body over a 25 year mine life.
London Mining 