Canadian: Billionaire Darts for Guinea’s Nimba Iron Ore

By Abdul Rahman Suagibu –

Photo Credit: Africa Confidential

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS, Freetown, Sierra Leone- Robert Friedland, Canadian mining billionaire is bent to take control of the Nimba Iron Ore deposit in Guinea.

On Thursday, High Power Exploration-a private US Company administering by Mr. Friedland. He noted, it has retained greenlight from Conakry to buy the 95% interest in Nimba owned by BHP, Newmont Mining and France’s Orano.

“I am delighted that HPX will work with the Government and people of Guinea to bring the Nimba deposit into production and to help His Excellency President Conde’ realize his longstanding vision of seeing Guinea become a world-class producer of iron ore,” said HPX President Eric Finlayson.

Nimba, located in the south-east of Guinea, is estimated to hold around $1 billion tones of the steelmaking ingredient.

HPX said, plans are under ways to bring a starter mine of 1m to 5m tones into production as soon as possible with a view to increase output to at least 20m tones.

Under the deal, the government of Guinea will be handed a 15% stake in socie^’te’ des Mines de Fer de Guine^’e, the entity that owns Nimba.

BHP, Goldcorp and Orano will receive payment for their stakes once the mines is up and mining, people with knowledge of the deal said.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Suagibu Reports,  Africa Correspondent

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