Arrow Minerals and Baosteel to Partner on Simandou North Iron Ore Project
On 21 October 2024, Arrow Minerals (ASX: AMD) issued a statement to announce that it has signed an MoU with Baosteel in order to supply iron ore from its Simandou North mine to Baosteel Resources Holding (Shanghai) Company Limited. The MoU is non-binding and is an initial step towards further negotiation towards a binding mine gate sales contract and more.
Earlier this year, Arrow Minerals acquired the 66.7% stake in Amagalmated Minerals, which used to own the Simandou North Iron Project. Arrow also possesses the Nigara Bauxite project.
Baosteel (SHA: 600019) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Baowu Group, which is the largest producer of steel in the world and owns the Simandou Iron Ore mine. Baowu Group has also interests in the Pilbara mine in Western Australia.
“This is an important milestone for Arrow, the Simandou North Iron Project and Guinea. The delivery of multi-user infrastructure will continue to attract significant global investment which in turn will promote the growth of a world class mining industry. That will result in globally competitive operations, substantial local employment and extensive national benefits.”
Arrow MD David Flanagan
Discussions for BaoWu Group to become a shareholder in the Simandou North mine are not off the table. In fact, Baowu already owns two out of four blocks on the Simandou site, notably Blocks 1 and 2, which are adjacent to Simandou North.
The Simandou project boasts a reserve estimated at 4.7 billion tonnes with 65.5% iron grade. Rio Tinto and Winning Consortium also owns mines in Simandou. Production by Baosteel on Blocks 1 and 2 is forecasted to reach 120 millions tonnes annually.
Arrow has started exploration of the Simandou North since 2023. From the 521 prospection holes drilled, it is estimated that the area might contain between 281 and 716 million tonnes of Hematite with 33-46% iron content. Arrow plans intention to move to scope studies and resource drilling by 2025.
Through simple wet gravity process, the ore can be enriched up to 61-64% iron content with low alumina (<0.5%). Compared to the Pilbara iron ore, the Simandou ore does not have significant amounts of silica, which is another advantage. As such, in mining circles, the Simandou is sometimes referred as the ‘Pilbara Killer!’