The small-cap miners operating deep in the West African jungle

West Africa is one of the world’s most exciting new mining regions, with huge reserves of iron ore and the potential for massive profits. Tom Bulford looks at some of the companies hoping to get a slice of the action.

Mining executives often like to describe their business as an exercise in earth moving. Maybe because they are not geologists they downplay the challenge of finding the stuff in the first place. Instead they concentrate on the physical challenge and cost of digging it up, sorting the metal from the ore and taking it to the nearest railway line or shipping terminal.

Sometimes this process runs smoothly. In countries with established mining industries, with modern transport networks and power grids, mining is a simple business. But today's miners are increasingly going where no miner has gone before, and they are finding that the necessary infrastructure does not exist.

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