In a statement to the Doha Securities Market (DSM), Industries Qatar declared that its wholly owned-Qatar Steel Company has pulled out from Guelb El Aouj project in Mauritania due to strategic reasons.
Late last year, Qatar Steel announced that it had acquired 49.9 % interest in the Guelb el Aouj Iron Ore project in Northern Mauritania for US$375 million. The project comprises three adjacent deposits (Centre, East and West) that together represent a combined resource currently estimated at approximately 1 billion tonnes with further hedge potentiality. The exploitation of the project is scheduled to commence in 2010 and will involve the mining and beneficiation of magnetite-quartzite ore, and the production of 7 million tons annually of Direct Reduction Iron Ore (DR) grade pellets envisaged to start with further expansion of additional capacity.
The project is owned equally by Sphere Investments Limited (Sphere) and the Mauritanian State-owned iron ore company, Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM).
