Mauritania has discovered new iron-ore resources roughly projected at 830-million tonnes. This discovery was located near Zourete; an existing mine operation north of the country. This significant discovery is said to boost the regions output.
Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country forming part of West Africa. Mauritania is Africa’s second biggest iron-ore producer after South Africa with around 12-million tonnes per year. This figure symbolises roughly 50% of the country’s exports.
It had said before the discovery that there were plans to increase production to around 40-million tonnes within the next 10 years.
Within the next ten years, around $5-billion will be invested to attain its growth objective. Government said it would be carrying out a scoping study or more technical analysis to get a definite estimate of the reserves of the new discovery, which could become the country’s biggest mining project, but gave no further details. The country which straddles black and Arab Africa on the continent’s west coast, also holds copper and gold reserves as well as a budding offshore oil and gas sector.
