Guinea Junta Halts Iron Ore Project

By AFP

Guinea has accused two giant miners of a “lack of willingness” to work with the ruling junta to develop a vast iron ore deposit and on Monday suspended all activities for the project.

Conakry signed a 35-year deal in March with Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto and the Chinese-backed Winning Consortium Simandou to exploit one of the world’s biggest ore deposits in remote southeast Guinea.

Under the deal a 670-kilometre (415-mile) railway line is to be built linking the deposits in Simandou with a new port south of the capital Conakry, before December 2024.

Commercial production is set to start by March 31, 2025.

“The Guinean state notes with regret the clear lack of willingness on the part of your two companies to focus on a win-win partnership necessary for the joint development of the Simandou projet,” Mines Minister Moussa Magassouba wrote in a letter to the companies dated Sunday and seen by AFP on Monday.

He went on to accuse them of “inertia” in agreeing the level of state investment, saying it “dangerously compromises” the scheme.

“Despite the broad concessions” granted by the regime, “obstruction is still being maintained by both companies”, the minister said.

The letter ordered a halt to all activities over the Simandou project from 0800 GMT Monday.

The move came after the government set a 14-day deadline in mid-June to finalise the joint venture.

The project, which was to create several thousand direct jobs, has been hampered for years by disputes over mining rights, the scale of investment required and allegations of corruption.