Mano clinches iron ore deal

West Africa-focused Mano River Resources has signed a £28 million agreement with Russian steel giant Severstal to develop Liberia’s Putu Range.

Under the agreement, a Severstal subsidiary is to invest around £2 million for 6.29 per cent of depressed Mano at 10p a share, with an option to take that to 11.84 per cent later on at 14p. Another Severstal division will pay £18.8 million for 61.5 per cent of the Putu Range iron ore project, now held by Mano’s 80 per cent-owned African Iron Ore Group, and will provide African Iron Ore with further funding of up to £7.5 million.

Luis da Silva, Mano’s chief executive officer, says the Mano-Severstal partnership will be ‘critical in bringing Putu Range into production’. Mano’s long underperforming shares, which fell from 1998’s 18p float price to 7.75p two months ago, have rallied to 10p, up 1.38p this morning, and could go further if the Severstal agreement looks like bearing fruit.

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