PRESS RELEASE
China National Electric Engineering Co and Gerald Group sign agreement to invest over US$ 300 million in iron ore mine in Sierra Leone
London, 28 June 2018 – SL Mining in Marampa in Sierra Leone, West Africa, (a wholly owned subsidiary of Gerald Group) and China National Electric Engineering Co. (“CNEEC”) today signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (“EPC”) contract at a ceremony in Beijing, China, attended by Craig Dean, CEO and Frederic Lotti, Senior Vice President, Gerald Group and President Zhang Yanfei and General Manager Li Zhigang for CNEEC.
The agreement is a commitment to the construction of both phases of the engineering, procurement and financing of the SL Mining project for an overall investment programme of approximately US$ 300 million. SL Mining’s plan has been to re-commission this mine in the first quarter of 2019, and executing this agreement helps ensure this goal will be achieved. In the initial phase, the project will directly and indirectly create more than 1,000 local jobs, increasing in the second phase to 2,000 jobs locally. SL Mining aims to source at least 90 per cent of its staff locally, a higher proportion than ever before, and to implement a robust training programme for its workers.
Gerald Group owns the mining licenses and land leases for the project under its wholly owned subsidiary SL Mining, which is engaged in the exploration, development and production of iron ore concentrate. The mine, located in Marampa in the Port Loko District in Sierra Leone, has a production capacity of 5.4 million wet metric tonnes of iron ore per annum. The Group is undertaking a full technical and operational review of the project to rehabilitate and upgrade the plant to produce a 65 per cent Fe concentrate grade. Phase I will see approximately 2mtpa of high-grade concentrate production while Phase II will involve expansion to between 6-10 mtpa. The project has over one billion tonnes of indicated and inferred resources and a life of mine of over 30 years.
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About Gerald Group
Gerald Group is one of the world’s leading global commodity trading companies offering services as a reliable partner in trade, finance and investment across the global supply chain. Founded in 1962, the Group has helped shape the dynamic of the global non-ferrous and metals trade and has grown to establish trading and representative offices in 18 cities and a presence in forty countries in all regions of the world.
Gerald focuses primarily on the commerce of commodities. Our customers and partners and span the supply chain from mines and producers to distributors and industrial end-users. As a merchant, we add value sourcing and marketing physical commodities across a global network. As a trader, we centralise and opportunistically manage the associated financial and logistical risks. Our core merchant and trading functions are supplemented by strategic investments, joint ventures and structured financing solutions which offer access and opportunity to a diverse portfolio of industrial assets. Gerald Group is privately owned by its employees, led by Craig Dean, Executive Chairman and CEO of the Group and has approximately US$ 3 billion in assets and US$ 10 billion in turnover.
For more information about Gerald Group, please visit: http://www.gerald.com or e-mail: info@gerald.com.