International Mining & Infrastructure Corporation (LON:IMIC) has increased the resource estimate at its Ntem iron ore project in Cameroon by more than half.

The overall total rose to 176.3 million tonnes (mt), a 53% rise, at a 35% iron grade with most of this increase accounted for by a 148% jump in the indicated category to 96.9Mt.

Metallurgical test work also indicated that Ntem could produce 70.9% iron premium concentrate that would be suitable for direct reduction (DR) steel production.

Ethelbert Cooper, IMIC’s chairman, said the substantial increase indicate that resources would support an extended mine life at Ntem, which is 80km from the deep-water port at Kribi.

The ability to produce a high-quality DR grade product opens up the possibility of multiple geographic markets for the project, he added.

IMIC wants to achieve early production at an early production at Ntem by transporting a high-grade iron concentrate to Kribi via a slurry pipeline solution.

A feasibility study for Ntem is anticipated to begin this year, Copper added. Shore Capital said the update indicated significant improvements in tonnages, grades and confidence, with the results of the Davis Tube Recovery (DTR) test work also good news.

The metallurgy was based on 125 composite samples of fresh magnetite; head grade averaged 36.3% Fe, while Fe recovery and mass yield averaged 81.7% and 41.8%, respectively. Shares rose from 2.5% to 15.5%.