ANDREW TRAHAR

IF the success of a mining project is dependent on the quality of its investor base, then the Zanaga iron ore project in the Republic of Congo should be a dead certainty. Either directly, or through their investment vehicles, former Anglo American CEOs Tony Trahar and Mark Cutifani and former Xstrata CEO Mick Davis, among others, stumped up $21m in 2025 for shares in AIM-listed Zanaga Iron Ore Co, the project’s holding company. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Trahar’s son, Andrew, who heads up corporate development for Zanaga, has been working hard to revive interest in the project, which had a feasibility study completed and published by Glencore as far back as 2014. The funds Zanaga raised last year were used to buy out Glencore’s remaining share and ensure 100% ownership of the project. Trahar has been busy talking up the investment case for the project. It builds on the quality of the ore at Zanaga, which when pelletised, can be used in steelmaking with substantially lower carbon emissions than traditional processes.

The plan, says Trahar, is to also vertically integrate the project with downstream processing technology either in the Republic of Congo, which has in-country gas to power the plant, or in Saudi Arabia or one of the Gulf states. He also compares Zanaga with the Simandou project in Guinea, highlighting its lower costs and the shorter freight distance to the closest port. Still, questions remain about the steep $2bn bill to achieve the project’s full intended capacity of 30Mt a year. Then there is the risk associated with operating in the Republic of Congo. A final investment decision is expected in late 2027, Trahar says.