Motjoli Seeks $1.5 Billion to Develop Its Iron Ore Project in South Africa

Motjoli Resources, a South African miner, plans to raise as much as $1.5 billion to fund the concrushing for sand productionstruction of an iron ore mine that may produce as much as 20 million metric tons of the steelmaking ingredient a year.

Motjoli will apply to the Industrial Development Corp. and the Development Bank of South Africa, among others, to fund a project that may start operating as soon as the final quarter of 2011, Executive Chairman Nchakha Moloi said in an interview in Moscow yesterday. The company may also look to steelmakers and mining companies for funding, he said. “We’ll look for outside funding, which could include funding from South African development institutions, corporate banks and also other investors with deeper pockets,” Moloi said. “As we expand, we’ll bring in more investors.” Motjoli’s ore project, at Piet Retief in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, has 1.2 billion tons of proven reserves, said Moloi, a former deputy director general of the Department of Mineral Resources.