Sarmins’ Gibi project in Liberia is WhyAfrica’s Pick Of The Week.
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Sarmins’ Gibi iron ore project in Liberia is WhyAfrica’s Pick Of The Week.
Gibi’s access to good infrastructure makes it commercially viable.
Bulk commodities like iron ore live or die on logistics.
Mining iron ore is a logistics game more than anything else.
Iron ore is a marginal play and if you can’t move large volumes of material at low prices from pit to port, geology is suddenly not that important.
When you have a good rail network and efficient ports roads become less of an imperative.
The West African state of Liberia has an infrastructure advantage other African jurisdiction simple don’t have.
Heavy-haul rail corridors already exist in Liberia and ports like Buchanan was built in the 1960s with the pure intention of exporting raw materials.
Proximity to major ports
A project like Sarmin Metals’ Gibi iron ore development located in the Bong County about 89km east-northeast of Liberia’s capital Monrovia, and its proximity to both the Buchanan and Monrovia ports make it an attractive and commercially viable project.
Sarmin Metals is a Singapore-registered exploration and development mining company. Its subsidiary West26 is advancing the Gibi project.
Sarmin Metals focusses on developing high-grade Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) deposits in specific target areas.
In addition to Gibi, West26 also holds exploration rights in the southern regions of Nimba County.
Nimba County borders the Bong, Grand Bassa, Rivercess, and Grand Gedeh counties in Liberia.
Drilling down at Gibi
The Gibi deposit is a magnetite-dominated Banded Iron Formation (BIF), referred to as itabirite, likely formed in a restricted marine basin setting.
West26’s strategy will be to fast-track production by initially focusing on a smaller target area within the larger 448km² exploration licence.
The Ridge 1–4 iron ore deposits at Zezia Hills extend about 4km north–south within a 1.7 km-wide zone and average ± 40m in depth.
Phase 3 exploration is currently in progress with a total of 4,000m drilling and sampling planned.
Image: Drilling in progress at Sarmin Metals’ Gibi project in Liberia. Image credit: Sarmin Metals. Source of image: Sarmin Metals website
Sarmins’ Gibi iron ore project in Liberia is WhyAfrica’s Pick Of The Week.