London Mining: Starts Iron Ore Output In Sierra Leone

U.K.-listed London Mining PLC (LOND.LN) said Friday it has started iron ore production from its Sierra Leone Marampa project and expects to ship its first iron ore later this month.

The company also said it expects to increase the name plate production capacity of Marampa's first phase by 11% to 4 million metric tons a year of the steelmaking raw ingredient and has increased the project's first phase capital expenditure by 11% to $234 million from $210 million to create a better platform to enable future expansion and due to scope changes to the logistics infrastructure.

Once the first phase is complete, the company then plans to increase the project's annual iron ore production capacity to 11.5 million tons a year as part of its second phase expansion.

"Today is a landmark day for London Mining and Sierra Leone," said Graeme Hossie, chief executive of London Mining. "The production of high specification iron ore product from our plant at Marampa after decades of mine inactivity marks the beginning of our Phase 1 ramp up and forms the basis for our phased expansions to 16 million tons a year" of the steelmaking raw ingredient.

Production will ramp up during the first half of 2012 to over 160,000 tons a month, with 1.8 million tons of production still targeted for 2012.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com

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