Australia’s Kogi Iron has been granted a fourth mining lease after an approval by the Nigerian government.
This is coming as the company progresses towards a planned feasibility study on a fully integrated cast steel billet project in Nigeria.
The latest approval delivers Kogi Iron a contiguous total of ~145 square kilometres of four mining leases and one exploration lease at its Agbaja Plateau cast steel project in Kogi State.
Kogi Iron is planning to mine leased local iron-ore deposits as a feedstock for its cast steel plant, to supply steel to manufacturing and product fabricators in both Nigeria and overseas.
The new mining lease grants Kogi Iron the right to develop and operate a mine for a period of 25 years, and is renewable.
According to the Managing Director of Kogi Iron, David Turvey, “The company has achieved another milestone towards becoming the first integrated steel producer in Nigeria as we move forward with this ‘Project of National Significance’. I am particularly pleased with the effectiveness of administration by our local team and government departments.”
Kogi Iron has been successfully advancing the project since 2016, with access to company leased iron ore deposits and nearby coal and limestone sources.
Laboratory-scale tests on the Agbaja iron ore demonstrated that it could be converted to a steel feedstock suitable for electric arc furnaces.
A successful pilot plant test program completed in September 2018 on a large bulk sample confirmed the feasibility of producing a marketable cast steel product, together with the development of a preliminary flowsheet for the processing of Agbaja iron ore into cast steel suitable for billet making.
