Jan 23 (Reuters) – Iron ore miner London Mining Plc said full-year production beat its expectations, helped by increased productivity in the fourth quarter, and added that it was on track to expand capacity at its Sierra Leone mine.
Fourth-quarter production at Marampa, London Mining’s only producing mine, rose 46 percent over the preceding quarter to 546,000 wet metric tonnes.
Marampa performed very well in the fourth quarter due to the hiring of a new mining contractor and improvement in plant availability and recoveries, the company said.
Full-year production of 1.63 million wet metric tonnes, or 1.52 million dry metric tonnes, was ahead of its target of 1.5 million dry metric tonnes.
London Mining said it placed its coking operation in Colombia under care and maintenance, to focus on its core iron ore business.
The company, which is developing two other iron ore mines in Saudi Arabia and Greenland, said its plan to expand capacity at Marampa to 5 million tonnes per year by the third quarter was on schedule.
London Mining shares closed at 159.5 pence on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday. They fell 40 percent last year.
