In June 2014 AKORA acquired a 75% interest in Iron Ore Corporation Madagascar sarl (IOCM) from Cline Mining Corporation. In July/August 2020 AKORA negotiated acquisition of the remaining 25% of Bekisopa from Cline Mining so that AKORA holds 100% of the Bekisopa tenements.
The Bekisopa prospect has been the focus of three generations of evaluation, the French Geological Society BRGM in 1959-62, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1976-78 and Cline Mining Corp. in 2007-08. Since July 2019 Bekisopa is the main focus for AKORA Resources.
The Bekisopa Iron Ore Project in Madagascar hosts an Inferred Resource of 194.7million tonnes (Mt) with the potential to produce a quality Direct Ship Iron Ore product and a premium grade 67.6% iron concentrate suitable for Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) pellets for the steel industry’s accelerating decarbonisation.
The Company’s flagship Bekisopa Iron Ore Project has a 194.7 million tonne (mt) Inferred JORC Resource with very low impurities able to produce a premium-priced +68% Fe concentrate. Direct Reduced Iron-Electric Arc Furnace (DRI-EAF) technology which is used to make greener steel without coal and considerably less carbon emissions requires iron ore grades of at least 67%.
To generate cash in the near-term, AKORA is advancing plans at Bekisopa to produce up to 2Mt per annum over the first five years of a 61% Fe average grade direct shipping ore (DSO) for shipping to Blast Furnace-Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) steelmakers.
Our plan is to develop the Bekisopa Project in two stages.
Stage 01: Produce+62% Fe direct shipping ore (DSO)
Stage 02: Produce premium-priced +68% Fe concentrate
AKORA has drilled 250 holes across four campaigns totalling over 8,400m at Bekisopa.
Scoping Study Highlights – ‘Low CAPEX Case’:
Wardell Armstrong International Comments taken from the Competent Person Report – October 2020
Whilst the projects are at an early stage, there are positive factors associated with the projects, namely:
Further detail included in the Historical Exploration Work summary attached.