Arrow Minerals secures rail access agreement for Simandou North iron project in Guinea

Arrow Minerals (ASX: AMD) has opened the door to the sales market for its Simandou North iron project with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for access to the local railway system in Guinea.

Arrow considers the agreement an important milestone that creates a framework for potential mine gate sales of iron ore to Baosteel Resources—a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BaoWu Group, the world’s largest steel producer.

BaoWu is also one of the lead proponents of the Simandou iron ore project, the largest undeveloped high-grade iron ore deposit in the world.

Global investment

“The delivery of multi-user infrastructure will continue to attract significant global investment, which in turn will promote the growth of a world-class mining industry,” managing director David Flanagan said.

“That will result in globally competitive operations, substantial local employment and extensive national benefits.”

“It has taken millions of man-hours, billions of dollars and thousands of pages of contracts for all the joint venture partners, including BaoWu Group, to develop the Simandou iron project, which is due for commissioning in late 2025.”

Arrow completed a fast-tracked acquisition of the remaining 66.7% interest in Amalgamated Minerals, which held the Simandou North iron project, in late March 2024.

The $2 million payment to the vendors at the completion of the transaction formed part of the intended use of proceeds referred to in the company’s March 2024 $10m capital raising.

Government support

Mr Flanagan noted the significant role that the Guinea government has played in ensuring that the infrastructure to support the project is delivered as a ‘multi-user’ facility with the potential to support numerous industries and provide substantial benefits to Guinea.

“Blocks 1 and 2 – as part of the Simandou iron project – are directly adjacent to Arrow’s Simandou North iron project, which creates real operating synergies due to their close proximity.”

“Since commencing field activities at our Simandou North iron project in 2023, Arrow has completed 521 holes for a total of 10,309 metres, culminating in an exploration target announcement and the intention to move to resource drilling and scoping studies in 2025.”

That target for Simandou North is estimated between approximately 281 and 716 million tonnes of oxide at 33 to 46% iron.

Preliminary test work

Mr Flanagan said the company has received encouraging preliminary metallurgical test work on the same mineralisation, which achieved a 61% to 64% iron, low alumina hematite fines product from a simple wet gravity process.

The company will now further assess beneficiation methods – which are widely used in iron ore processing in the Pilbara and globally in mineral sands production – in future programs.

In contrast to Pilbara iron ore processes, where most are seeking to reduce alumina and silica in the final product, the beneficiation for this project is only focused on reducing silica in the final product.