from the mine to Pointe Noire. A subsequent funding agreement was signed with CFCO in October 2011. As part of the deal, Equatorial Resources’ investment in the line will be regarded as payment up front for future rail charges. Welborn says Equatorial Resources will share the rail link with other mining companies such as South African miner Exxaro which is also developing a mine close to the existing line.
The mining companies will operate their own trains on the line and Equatorial Resources is currently investigating potential locomotive builders in South Africa, Eastern Europe and China. Welborn says the fleet will likely be a mixture of owned and leased units.
The company anticipates moving
around 5 million tonnes a year when production begins.
Cameroon and Gabon
In Cameroon, Sundance Resources is developing the $US 4.7bn Mbalam Iron Ore Project and plans to build a 510km
railway from its Mbarga mine to a new port to be built at either Lalobé or Kribi. The project gathered new momentum last November after the Cameroonian government authorised the Mbalam Rail Corridor, effectively setting aside the land earmarked for the corridor. Projected annual tonnage from Mbalam is 35 million tonnes. Sundance also plans to build a 70km extension from Mbarga to the Nabeba mine in Congo. In 2011, Sundance apparently signed a port and rail access deal with Australian miner Legend Mining which plans to mine a large ore body at Ngovayang. Sundance’s proposed rail corridor passes close to Ngovayang. Sundance is currently in the process of being acquired by Hanlong Mining, a deal that is widely regarded as crucial to the project’s success.
Gabon is also on track to enjoy its own infrastructure boom as mining projects move closer to fruition. The standard-gauge 684km Transgabonais Railway, built at crippling cost between 1973 and 1986, already carries manganese from Moanda in the southeast to the port of Owendo, traffic that Comilog used to send via Congo
on the line that Australian miner Equatorial Resources has earmarked for its Mayoko ore project. Comilog subsidiary Setrag has a 30-year concession to operate the railway which includes providing a guaranteed freight and passenger service along with the manganese traffic. Gabon’s main iron-ore deposits are at Belinga and Makoukou in the northeast. As a result of the Gabon government’s recent cancellation of a concession awarded to CMEC of China in 2007, possibly due to concerns that the company would not be able to deliver, it is unclear who will develop the resource. In February 2012, Reuters reported that the Belinga concession had been awarded to BHP Billiton but the company declined to comment. Whoever does win the concession will be faced with the prospect of building a 237km railway from the mines to a junction with the Transgabonais at Booué in the centre of the country. There is also the possibility that due to high ore tonnages, the line would have to be extended to a new port that may be built at Santa Clara, near Owendo. IRJ
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www.ellwoodcrankshaftgroup.com IRJ January 2013 23
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