Strengths of The Zanaga Project

World class deposit

  • One of the largest discovered iron ore resources in Africa with a 6.8Bt resource, including the largest known iron ore reserve on the continent
  • Around 50% of the orebody’s magnetic footprint has been drilled to date, which implies there is further exploration potential along strike.
  • Capable of supporting, a large long life production profile of 30Mtpa supplying premium product to the market over a mine life of 30 years and potential to further extend this

Staged development enhances deliverability of the Project

  • Substantially reduces initial capital requirements
  • Increases financeability of the Project
  • Maintains low forecast operating costs
  • Expansion potential to 30Mtpa in the future

Reduced technical risk and enhanced economics through staged development approach:

  • Processing capability matched with sequential mining of the orebody layers provides technical efficiencies and reduced execution risk
  • Mining of higher grade ores in the initial years enables a higher production rate of 13.2Mtpa for first five years of operation while maintaining bottom quartile operating costs
  • Initial power requirements supplied by existing grid generation capacity, with the Stage Two development implemented in parallel with the timing of potential power generation projects
  • Capital cost profile enables potential self-financing of Stage Two through existing project cash flows from Stage One

Competitive material movements

  • The project benefits from a very low waste to ore strip ratio
  • In the initial years of production, the strip ratio is well below industry average requiring minimal blasting

Bottom quartile operating costs and benchmark capital costs

  • Competitive FOB operating cost estimates over the two stage mine life of circa $24-31 per dry metric tonne excluding consideration of expected product premium received
  • Capital costs in line with greenfield iron ore benchmarks.

High grade pellet feed product

  • The Stage One pellet feed product will have an iron grade of 66%, similar to Brazilian supply.
  • Impurities are expected to be low, including silica (3.0%), alumina (0.8%) and phosphorus (0.04%).
  • Product expected to command a price premium relative to the 62% Fe IODEX, both as a function of Fe content and low impurities.
  • Product expected to be attractive feed for pellet plants or as part of a sinter feed blend.

Mine life/operating scale upside:

  • Production is underpinned by 6.9Bt of Mineral Resource and 2.5Bt of Probable Ore Reserves
  • Mine life or operational scale is capable of extension beyond scheduled mine plans
  • Stage One will mine approximately 1Bt of ore, and the expansion to 30Mtpa will increase mined resource to 2Bt over the proposed 30 year mine life.

Supportive Government

  • Stable operating jurisdiction with an established resources industry
  • The Republic of Congo Government is actively seeking to encourage mining-related investment
  • Mining Licence received
  • Mining Convention signed
  • Land acquisition for mine, pipeline and other infrastructure is a straightforward process as the land is owned by the Government, removing the need for complex negotiations with multiple private land owners, as in other countries