The El Aouj project will add 11.5 millions tons per year of iron concentrate to the production in Mauritania.
The El Aouj mine is an open-pit iron mining operation located in the Tiris Zemmour area in Northern Mauritania. Phase 1, the El Aouj “East” deposit, will produce 11.5 million tons per annum of concentrate from approximately 25 million tons of ore. SNIM will transport the concentrate to the coast of Nouadhibou using their railway system where the product will be exported via the SNIM port facilities.
Ausenco performed the Feasibility Study for Phase 1 of the project and carried out the engineering and cost estimates for the process plant and associated mine and process infrastructure on site. Optimization of the plant design and the layout resulted in a 20% reduction of the Feasibility Study CAPEX and a 20% increase in processing capability. The Feasibility Study was awarded based on Ausenco’s ability to optimise iron ore plant design to reduce CAPEX and OPEX costs.
Ausenco managed the coordination of the owner, contractors and consultants in preparation for the Feasibility Report; this included geology, mining, mine geotechnical and hydro-geology.