Latest Progress of FMG’s West Africa Belinga Iron Ore Project

On February 8, 2023, Beijing time, FMG Group issued a document on its official website stating that the company has reached a mining agreement with the Gabonese government on the Belinga iron ore project in West Africa, and plans to complete the project in 2023.

The first mining work will be carried out in the second half of the year. FMG stated that the content of the agreement reached covers all legal, financial and regulatory systems related to the project, including early development items with an annual output of 2 million mt of iron ore, and plans to study potential design solutions to promote large-scale development of the project.

The project is open-pit mining, and the ore will be transported to the Owendo Mineral port by truck or rail. Ivindo Iron SA is the operating entity of the Belinga project. The operating entity is composed of Belinga Joint Venture Company (80% owned by FMG, 20% owned by the Africa Transformation and Industrialization Fund) and 10% free arbitrage interest of the Gabonese government.

The Belinga iron ore project is located in the northeast of Gabon. The project deposit was discovered in 1955. Its geological conditions and iron ore potential are similar to those of the Simandou iron ore project in the early exploration stage.