Zanaga Iron Ore Company Limited has launched bulk sampling at its iron ore project in the Republic of Congo, marking the first major equipment and personnel mobilization since 2014.
Operations began in July 2026, funded by proceeds from an equity raise completed in May. A local civil earthworks contractor is carrying out site preparation, excavation, sample extraction and compositing under environmental and mining permits approved after consultations with state ministries, the prefecture, project communities and traditional custodians.
Approximately 30,000 tonnes of ore will be extracted from the hematite zone designated for Stage 1 operations, which target a production rate of 12 million tonnes per annum. The resulting 100-tonne composite sample will supply process feed data covering the first five to ten years of Stage 1 operations.
The program is designed to validate the revised direct reduced iron processing flowsheet and provide material for specification characterization, process engineering design and product testing with steel mill customers, independent laboratories and offtakers. Results will support definition of primary and secondary process equipment, updated mass and energy balances and capital and operating cost estimates during the front-end engineering design phase.
