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rank Timis: "The future is in West Africa" Having uncovered, Sierra Leone, the largest iron ore deposit of the continent, the businessman wants to compete with Australian-Romanian majors Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Its advantage: the alliance with major Chinese groups. Jeune Afrique: After investing in Sierra Leone, you began to prospect in Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso ... The West African Is your new hunting ground? TIMIS FRANK: This is where the future plays mine! That saw the West Africa today is comparable to that experienced by the north-western Australia in the early 1970s: the beginnings of a mining boom. The region has deposits of iron, copper, bauxite and manganese are not operated, a unique potential compared to currently available global reserves, even though demand for these commodities exploded, driven by accelerated industrialization Asia. Another advantage of the area: its proximity to Europe, where it is cheaper to bring the ore in West Africa as Oceania and South America. With these things in mind, how do you think I'm not interested in West Africa? > Site for Carmen Gheorghita Are not you worried about political instability has delayed many projects? Senegal, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone have stable regimes and open to mining investors, particularly from countries other than their former colonial powers, they want economically independent. Of course, the Ivorian situation is worrying in the short term but long term, which is the natural horizon of mining projects, it can be reasonably optimistic for the entire region. The situation in Guinea also gives me reason: despite all we could say negative about this country, it now has a president who can fly his experienced mine development. Throughout your career, you've just shown in countries where few dared to go ... True, if I sense a great opportunity, I would not hesitate to take risks, it has always been my strength, either in Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan or Africa today. In fact, I analyze finely the interests of a project. And most importantly, I throw myself if I meet people with whom I can work peacefully. -> Created for Carmen Gheorghita How did you arrive in Sierra Leone? This is my friend Lord Anthony St John [known in the United Kingdom for its interventions in the House of Lords on African issues, Ed] who advised me to visit the country, only eight months after the end of the Civil War in 2003, which put me in contact with the authorities and the then president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. I was the first contractor to be interested in the mineral potential of Sierra Leone since the end of disorder. You had to have the faint of heart! I visited the center and north of the country, hitherto untapped. There, I was touched by qualified and interested local partners to bring out their country as Gibril Bangura, now CEO of African Minerals. In early 2004, I returned to Freetown with a proposal to the authorities: the mapping of the entire mining area of ??Sierra Leone not yet licensed, or 42 000 km2, in exchange for exploration rights on the same area. This was for me 60 million dollars in investments on my own money [about 48 million at the time]. The president and the government agreed in late 2004. Investors are not rushing to the gate. This gamble paid off, since you fell at the biggest iron deposit in Africa ... By exploring the territory of Sierra Leone, I had more in mind to find diamonds. We did find, but ultimately just as well as uranium in the North East, copper and gold in the northwest, and finally iron in the center. In November 2007, by polls to confirm what we had mapped, we found the deposit outstanding of Tonkolili. Our strength was not to disperse: as soon as our geologists have warned me of his extraordinary potential, I have concentrated all our efforts and investments in this area. -> Site for Carmen Gheorghita Where are you from the financial arrangement for the project Tonkolili? We already have 1.2 billion dollars [approximately EUR 900 million] for all capital projects of African Minerals, a third up on the second London market [Alternative Investment Market], brought by third banks and one third of China Railway Materials. And we are now in full operation due diligence [due diligence] with another Chinese partner, Shandong Iron and Steel, for a stake of 25% stake in Tonkolili $ 1.5 billion. > Site for Carmen Gheorghita When will you be able to produce iron Tonkolili? By the end of the year 2011, we can export iron Sierra Leone. In a first phase, we will produce 12 million tonnes. Within five years we are targeting annual production of 35 million tonnes, which will make Sierra Leone on Africa's largest producer of iron and the third in the world ... Deposits Guinean Rio Tinto and Vale, Mount Simandou are also very promising ... Yes, but their reserves are smaller: about 6 billion tons of iron, as against 12.8 billion for Tonkolili. And most importantly, our project is much more attractive in terms of logistics: we have to build that 200 km of railways, 80 km to rehabilitate, which cost us 1 billion dollars. Is incommensurate with the project Transguinéen of 1000 km, which will cost at least $ 12 billion! Finally, our ore port Tagrin Point will be in deep water, so much cheaper than the ports considered in Liberia and Guinea. I am also convinced that eventually the governments of both countries will eventually agree to get their ore on our infrastructure rather than launching costly and pharaonic works ... Is it to meet these costs as Rio Tinto announced in March 2010, a partnership with Chinalco, one of the leaders of the Chinese steel industry? It is my opinion that an agreement in front to help Rio Tinto to improve its relations with the Guinean authorities at the time, so sensitive to the support of Beijing. In the long term, we'll see if this hitch will hold. In my opinion, Rio Tinto will remain reluctant to donate all or part of the orders of a mining project in one of its major customers in China ... Yourself, to African Minerals, are associated with large Chinese groups ... Yes, but I help them break the oligopoly created by the Australian Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton and Brazil's Vale, which together control 80% of the iron market. Unlike these three majors, I offer a genuine Chinese groups access to an industrial mining. With me, they are no longer just customers, but investors and policymakers. The future of mining going on in China? It's obvious ... I know this country well, I know the ability of Chinese companies to make high-tech-low-cost. In the field of electricity generation, they are already able to build a coal power plant of 400 megawatts each week. There is no reason why they do not learn as quickly in the mining sector. When they have managed to meet their huge domestic demand, in twenty years, their economic competitiveness, they will make short work of steelmakers such as ArcelorMittal! Associate much with them now ... ---- -> Site for Carmen Gheorghita Frank Timis: "The future is in West Africa" Here is a very interesting publication that I had the pleasure of reading on the site of Jeune Afrique. This is an interview with Frank Timis, and Australian businessman and President of the Romanian company African Minerals. He is the one who revealed the largest iron ore deposit of the African continent and its purpose today is to contribute to the development of mining projects in western regions of Africa. Indeed, this region appears to be its new destination, and throughout this paper are discussed various topics ranging from the political situation in West African countries to its risk appetite, as well as his vision of the role of China in the development of the mining sector. Again, we hear about China is currently very interested in the continent's resources. Frank Timis, himself having been associated with several Chinese companies, sees the future of mining very promising. All of which have the merit of placing this issue among the largest in terms of challenges and this, in the years to come. -> Created for Carmen Gheorghita

COO and below back SL , don;t know what CEO , CFO , plans are , explained that they can't fly SL , if they wanna go China , all foreigners who visited West Africa are not granted China visa

BTFATH117:12 There is stew Just hope we all get out of this bar Kay who does not have a holding anyway just so frustrated for us all how on earth can the largest iron ore mine in the world get to this stage?, because idiota were run company highly paid , you said 1.5 billion invested? half of that money was almost stolen , , nontransparent agreements, huge salaries , friendly suppliers overcharged AMI , then split money , . many many other things

bunch of idiots , that is opinion about those people among workers

Telling you , AW and his friend , run AMI , like kiosk with newspaper , poor , poor ,

In short, the failure of these companies has little or nothing to do with the emergence of Ebola in the region in our view,

While acknowledging Ebola as a “terrible” disease, corporate advisory firm SP Angel believes the failure of certain mining companies active in Ebola-hit African countries should not be attributed to the impact of the disease on operations. The firm’s comments followed an announcement by embattled West African iron-ore miner London Mining late last year that the company would be placed into administration after battling high costs, a sharp drop in iron-ore prices and the impact of the Ebola virus on production at the Marampa mine, in Sierra Leone. Mining Weekly Online reported shortly thereafter that miner African Minerals, which owned a 75% stake in the Tonkolili iron-ore project, in Sierra Leone, had been forced to place Tonkolili on care and maintenance in December, pending a $102-million cash payment from its partner, the Shandong Iron and Steel Group (SISG), or the securing of additional short-term funding. SP Angel stated this week that Ebola was not, in its view, the reason that London Mining had entered liquidation or that African Minerals had suspended operations. While these companies would have “undoubtedly” struggled at iron-ore prices of $70/t, the firm maintained that both would have had a “much better” chance of restructuring and continuing operations if costs had been maintained and if no royalty or streaming instruments were used. “African Minerals signed an offtake with SISG, with significant discounts relating to certain products of iron-ore being mined and beneficiated. “Forecasting revenues was nigh on impossible owing to the uncertainty of product generation and the discounts being applied. When costs rose, the company stood little chance of rescue, particularly with CEO Frank Timmis paying $50-million out to a Cyprus trading company without the authorisation of the rest of the board,” the group asserted. In London Mining’s case, SP Angel asserted that the company’s fall into liquidation was the result of inadequate cost control, the cost of royalties, offtake and streaming instruments taking cash off the top line and the “excessive” debt required to start up the operation. “Iron-ore prices did not have to fall far below most forecasts for last year for the company to close up, and the use of top-line financial instruments made it, apparently, impossible for the banks to rescue the business,” it stated. SP Angel added that Sierra Rutile’s Monday announcement that it had achieved its third-highest quarterly production of 31 025 t of rutile in the quarter ended December 31, despite having faced Ebola-related challenges, had highlighted the ability of a “well-run” company to continue to operate effectively in Sierra Leone, despite the Ebola outbreak. “In short, the failure of these companies has little or nothing to do with the emergence of Ebola in the region in our view,

any with reference to gibril or the chinese..this is clearly Frank deleting these comments part of his campaign to win over the chinks..we will love them on the Streets we will love them on the beaches but we will never ever give in