May 9, 2022
China’s Sinosteel Signs $690 Million Deal for Cameroon Iron Mine
Bloomberg News
,![A freight train carrying iron ore travels towards Port Hedland, Australia, on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. A two-day drive from the nearest big city, Perth, Port Hedland is the nexus of Australia’s iron-ore industry, the terminus of one of Australia’s longest private railways that hauls ore about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the mines of BHP Group and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. The line ran a record-breaking test train weighing almost 100,000 tons that was more than 7 kilometers long in 2001, and even normal trains haul up to 250 wagons of ore. Photographer: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg, Bloomberg A freight train carrying iron ore travels towards Port Hedland, Australia, on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. A two-day drive from the nearest big city, Perth, Port Hedland is the nexus of Australia’s iron-ore industry, the terminus of one of Australia’s longest private railways that hauls ore about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the mines of BHP Group and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. The line ran a record-breaking test train weighing almost 100,000 tons that was more than 7 kilometers long in 2001, and even normal trains haul up to 250 wagons of ore. Photographer: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg](/polopoly_fs/1.1763343.1652120004!/fileimage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/a-freight-train-carrying-iron-ore-travels-towards-port-hedland-australia-on-tuesday-march-19-2019-a-two-day-drive-from-the-nearest-big-city-perth-port-hedland-is-the-nexus-of-australia-s-iron-ore-industry-the-terminus-of-one-of-australia-s-longest-private-railways-that-hauls-ore-about-400-kilometers-250-miles-from-the-mines-of-bhp-group-and-fortescue-metals-group-ltd-the-line-ran-a-record-breaking-test-train-weighing-almost-100-000-tons-that-was-more-than-7-kilometers-long-in-2001-and-even-normal-trains-haul-up-to-250-wagons-of-ore-photographer-ian-waldie-bloomberg.jpg)
(Bloomberg) -- China’s Sinosteel Corp. has signed a $690 million contract to exploit an iron ore mine in southern Cameroon amid a push to cut Chinese reliance on Australian and Brazilian ore.
Sinosteel will produce 10 million tons of ore annually containing 33% iron from the Lobe mine, Zheng Zhengao, who heads the Cameroonian subsidiary told reporters in the capital, Yaounde. It will then enrich the output to produce 4 million tons of high-grade ore with more than 60% iron content, he said.
The Chinese company signed a 50-year contract with the central African government to exploit the Lobe deposit, which contains an estimated 632.8 million tons of iron ore. The signing comes nearly a decade after Sinosteel first expressed interest in the mine.
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