African Minerals - Re: AMI Stream Log - rank Timis: "The future is...

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