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Century Iron Mines Corporation research and analysis

Contributed by eResearch

Century Iron Mines Corporation has published an initial mineral resource statement for its Hayot Lake iron deposit in Quebec, part of the Attikamagan iron project.

The deposit is estimated to contain an Inferred mineral resource of 1.723 billion tonnes, grading an average of 31.25% total iron at a cut-off grade of 20% total iron.

The Hayot Lake deposit is 18.5 kilometres from Shefferville, where existing operating rail infrastructure connects to the Port of Sept Iles (see Map 1 on Page 3).

COMMENT: The new estimate comes exactly one month after the Duncan Lake updated resource estimate, and more than doubles Century Iron’s total NI 43-101 resource. The Company should have more resource estimates coming in late 2012 - early 2013, which could make it one of the largest Canadian iron ore companies by total resource count.

THE COMPANY

Century Iron has interests in four iron ore projects in Canada (see the table below). The Duncan Lake project (1,613 Mt in total NI 43-101 estimated resources, grading 24%-25% Fe) is located in western Quebec, while three others are located in the Labrador Trough region of Quebec/Newfoundland and Labrador. The Company owns the biggest collection of iron ore claims in Canada by area.

The Company has two strategic Chinese shareholders: WISCO (25%) and Minmetals (5%), which have offtake agreements for 70% of future production. Century Iron has around $60 million in cash, earmarked for exploration and acquisitions.

Century Iron’s current strategy is to develop the DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) projects first (Joyce Lake, Lac Le Fer and Schefferville West), bring them into production starting from 2015, and use the proceeds to develop lower grade and more capital-intensive BIF projects.

According to management, DSO targets have up to 7Mt each @ 60%+ Fe and thus would be mined for 3-4 years. Lower-grade material would be stockpiled at first and processed afterwards. The Company estimates that DSO targets have up to 50Mt of lower-grade (around 50%) material each.

The Full Moon, Joyce Lake, and Lac Le Fer projects are expected to obtain resource estimates in late 20122013. Duncan Lake now has an updated resource estimate, and expects to receive a PEA late this year. Joyce Lake and Lac Le Fer could obtain PEAs some time in 2013.

Century Iron plans to bring the Joyce Lake DSO project into production in 2015. After that, the Lac Le Fer (see the map below) and Schefferville West (Altius properties) projects should start producing. The Company plans to use cash flows from producing DSO projects to build the railway to the Full Moon project (Rainy Lake on the map below) and other infrastructure for the BIF projects, including Duncan Lake.