Akora Resources’ Bekisopa project will aid in supplying clean iron products to the green steel industry.
The Company is an iron ore exploration company engaged in developing the Bekisopa project with future project areas at Tratramarina and Ambodilafa, all located in Madagascar.
It is a public company limited by shares, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 2020, incorporated in Australia and registered in Victoria under the provisions of the Corporations Act.
AKORA holds around 308 km2 of tenements across these three prospective exploration areas, with each project covered by several separate tenements.
The significance of the Bekisopa project
Bekisopa, in south-central Madagascar, is AKORA’s flagship iron ore project as it has the potential for significant high-grade lump and fines Direct Ship Ore (DSO). Furthermore, it has an exploration target of 0.5 to 1 billion tonnes at the two main tenements. The Bekisopa project consists of two tenements, a research permit (PR) and one small-scale mining permit (PRE) covering 31.25km2.
The successful October 2019 geological survey and ground magnetic survey at Bekisopa confirmed that the ore body extends over a 6km strike length to depths of at least 500 metres. Over the three years since listing, four drilling campaigns for over 8,000m of shallow drilling have been conducted. This has delivered a maiden mineral resource of 194.7Mt comprising a near-surface weathered zone of high-grade DSO lump and fines iron ore over a fresh magnetite iron mineralisation ore body that readily upgrades to produce a low impurity +68% iron concentrate.
AKORA’s strategy is to develop a conventional DSO iron ore operation and then use cashflow to enhance and expand the processing circuit, incorporating coarse grinding and magnetic separation processes to produce a low impurity +68% iron concentrate for Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) feed for green steel production.
The November 2023 announced Scoping Study shows Bekisopa to be a low capital – low production cost project that, with further drilling, should develop into a long-life operation.
AKORA’s other projects
AKORA Resources hosts several other iron ore projects besides the Bekisopa project. Around 40km southwest of the Bekisopa project is the Satrokala tenement area, where 2022 geological fieldwork confirmed surface rock chips averaging 64.5% iron.
An extensive ground magnetic survey was completed in November 2023. This survey is expected to define a 10 km-long anomaly for drill testing in 2024.
The Tratramarina project is around 16km from the tide line on the mid-east coast of Madagascar and is the next promising project. This prospect, like Ambodilafa, some 45km from the coast, is a banded iron formation magnetite deposit with exploratory drilling intercepting iron ore grading 25-35% Fe.
These projects present AKORA with growth options to produce additional clean, high-grade DRI iron concentrates as the iron and steel industry’s decarbonisation accelerates.
The AKORA opportunity
- Since listing in December 2020, the increased ore body knowledge, product quality trials and 250 shallow drill holes confirm a unique iron mineralisation at Bekisopa.
- From the maiden mineral resource, the initial years of mining will produce high-grade DSO for the blast furnace steel-making process. Then, transition to mining and processing the fresh magnetite, creating a clean DRI concentrate for green steel processes.
- The coarse iron mineralisation at Bekisopa and high head grades, averaging 45% Fe in the Green Steel Zone, should enable the clean DRI – Green Steel concentrate to be produced at a coarse 75-micron grind size.
