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Marketing & Logistics
Mine to Port
Lodestone will use performance based standards (PBS) trucking (road trains) for the initial phase and then transfer this to the rail head north of Windhoek (WINCON). The road to railhead consists of a 32 kilometre sealed surface district road and a 60 km dual carriage freeway. This short leg requires a fleet of 10 PBS trucks to transport up to 1 million tons per year of the iron ore concentrate.
Once the mine ramps up from the initial phase, a 90km slurry pipeline is planned to be installed to pipe and then dewater at the rail head.
The rail mainline from Windhoek to Walvis Bay has an axle load of 16.5 tons / axle or 1,650 tons of payload per train under current network conditions. Lodestone would require a total of 10 trains running (5 in each direction per day) which represents about half of the network capacity at that point. The network is currently utilised at less than 50%.
Port to Ship
Walvis Bay is a deep sea port located 495km (by road) from the Dordabis project. The port can call vessels up to 13.5m draft and partially load (120 thousand tons) a capesize vessel with existing port cranes and piloting capabilities. The port has two independent bulk operators, Grindrod and Bigen-Kuumba.
The port is located 22 days by sea from ARA and MENA and 32 days to any major port in China.
Port to Ship
Marketing
The Dordabis concentrate can be blended with finer concentrates to be used as a direct reduction pellet feed or fed directly to a sinter plant as fines. The product will be priced at a premium to 65% Fe Brazilian fines (CFR China). The chemistry of the product has been extensively tested by Anglo American Marketing Limited in various blends and applications as a sweetener to existing ores in the market.
The typical product specifications as obtained during pilot plant trials using in fill drill core and calibrated comprehensive process model are
• 66% Fe, 1.9% SiO2, 0.44% Al2O3, 0.09% P, 0.37% TiO2
• 60% > 150 micro meters
• 5% < 45 micro meters
• Blaine index of 1126 cm2/g
The target market for this product will be direct reduction pellet producers.
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Namibian Office
Paula-Marie Gurirab
+264 61 218079