Sundance Cameroon iron ore project on track despite air disaster

Sundance Resources says it Mbalam iron ore project in Cameroon is still on track despite air crash which killed the company's entire board of directors.

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - 

Australian mining firm Sundance Resources has assured Cameroon's government its huge Mbalam iron ore project is on track despite a plane crash last month that killed its entire board of directors.

Mbalam, Sundance's main project, is among a handful of big iron ore developments in west and central Africa and is seen as a cornerstone of Cameroon's effort to diversify its largely oil-dependent economy into mining.

Sundance's new chairman, George Jones, met with Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Thursday.

"We came to assure him that the project is well on track," Jones said late on Thursday on state radio. "There is a new board in place and the new board has a strong determination to see this project implemented as soon as possible."

The Mbalam project, southeast of Yaounde near the Belinga mine in Gabon, holds an estimated 2.5 billion tonnes of high grade hematite and itabirite hematite. Sundance hopes to produce some 35 million tonnes per year with operations starting up in 2012, according to its web site.

Contruction is due to begin in 2011 after completion of a feasibility study.

"We believe strategic interest in Sundance has increased as the asset approaches the definitive-feasibility-study stage, which is due by year-end," Renaissance Capital said in a research note earlier this week.

Renaissance Capital said they expected Sundance to enter into partnership with an Asian steel-related investor in a deal similar to the build-operate-finance agreements signed by firms with iron ore assets in Sierra Leone and Guinea this quarter.

The future of the project became uncertain after a plane carrying Sundance's board crashed in June in Congo Republic, killing all aboard and triggering a temporary halt in Sundance shares.

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