Reuters reported that London Mining, which began producing iron ore in Sierra Leone last month has trimmed its output target for 2012 to 1.5 million tonnes due to the ore mix and said an improved resource base had opened the doors for a lower cost expansion.

The miner which produces high-quality ore suitable for Europe, unlike many other juniors operating in the region had earlier targeted 1.8 million tonnes from its Marampa operation.

London Mining will be held back by the need to commission a ball mill, used for grinding iron ore into a fine powder in the third quarter, adding it was now aiming for 3.5 million tonnes in 2013 and 4.6 million tonnes in 2014.

However, the discovery of additional highly weathered ore which is more concentrated has allowed it to increase the potential capacity of its first phase to 5 million tonnes, lifting expected capital spending to USD 260 million from USD 234 million and lowering unit costs.

Analysts at Numis said the operational update was "overall positive, with the slight downgrade for 2012/2013 (production) counter-balanced by the expansion potential".

(Sourced from Reuters)