* Exporting through Liberia improves viability of Guineaproject
* Aims to raise $200-300 million next year
* Targeting 5 million tonnes iron ore per year after 2015
By Stephen Eisenhammer
LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Guinea-focused Sable Mining is confident it will get a decree from the country'sgovernment to export iron ore through Liberia in the comingmonths, a move which would dramatically improve the project'sviability, its chief executive said.
Liberia, which neighbours Guinea, has an existing rail linkand offers a far closer export route meaning companies with ironore projects in Guinea, including Vale and Rio Tinto, are jostling to export through the country.
But the Guinean government has been reluctant to permit thisout of a desire to improve its own infrastructure. The giantSimandou project, which lies further in-land than Sable's Nimba,is one of the world's largest untapped deposits of iron ore andseen as a unique development opportunity for Guinea.
"I'm 110 percent sure we'll get the papers," Andrew Groves,chief executive of Sable Mining, told Reuters in an interviewreferring to the decree from the Guinean government allowingexport through Liberia.
West Africa, and Guinea in particular, is seen as the nextmajor frontier for iron ore, but a dire lack of infrastructureand the huge investments needed have crippled projects.
Groves, who runs the company with former England cricketerPhil Edmonds, said he also expected the mining licence to beawarded this quarter, with capital raising starting next year.
"We'll have to raise about $200-300 million and we'll startdoing that in the new year," he said. This is likely to be madeup of an equal split of bonds, equity and offtake agreements.
In terms of offtake agreements Groves said he was not onlylooking at China, whose demand is the main driver for WestAfrican iron ore, but also at Europe.
"Our grades are so high (60 percent iron grade) that we'realso looking at Europe," he said.
The existing rail line is used by steel giant ArcelorMittal which exports iron ore from the Yekepa mine inLiberia, just on the other side of the border from Sable'sproject. Groves said the line had ample spare capacity tosupport the 5 million tonnes of production a year Sable istargeting after 2015.
But back in June head of ArcelorMittal's West Africanoperations, Joseph Mathews, told Reuters the line was atcapacity and new producers could not rely on it.
Permission to export through Liberia and the mining licencewould put Sable back on the map, according to Groves.
In 2010 Groves, who successfully sold a previous venture,Congo-focused copper miner Camec, for nearly 600 million poundsto ENRC, said Sable would be worth $1 billion within ayear. The company, whose shares have more than halved sinceJanuary, is now worth $50 million.
"We'll get there," he said. "In the next few months peoplewill start taking us more seriously." (Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; editing by David Evans)
