JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A reconnaissance drilling programme at West African Minerals’ South Sanaga iron-ore licence, in Cameroon, has intersected multiple coarse-grained magnetite gneiss packages with grades and thicknesses sufficient to initiate a follow-up drill programme designed to deliver a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) in early 2015.

Preliminary metallurgical testwork performed on samples of magnetite gneiss had produced concentrates with iron grades averaging 69% iron.

“A preliminary high-level logistical study for the Sanaga permit is ongoing to assess the existing infrastructure, including rail access from the lease area, roads, river access, pipeline potential and availability at the port of Douala,” West African Minerals said in a statement on Tuesday.

President Brad Mills added that the South Sanaga licence continued to meet the criteria required to bring a magnetite project to development in a challenging iron-ore price environment.

Its primary advantage was its proximity to existing port, rail and power infrastructure that carried potential for enhanced economics and a closer timeline to production.

“Technically, the metallurgy suggests that a premium concentrate can be produced with insignificant impurities that can match the finest concentrate available in the market. We have now also initiated infill drilling on the back of a successful reconnaissance drilling programme to target a resource of up to 100-million tons,” Mills commented.

He noted that the company's current funding would provide for the development of South Sanaga to a maiden MRE, while cost-reduction measures were being implemented to preserve cash through challenging commodity markets.

Meanwhile, all assay results had now been received for the trenching programme at the company's Madina licence, in Sierra Leone, and had confirmed a Marampa group hematite schist exploration target over 1.5 km of strike length, with an average width at surface of around 220 m and iron grades of between 39% and 42%.