Guinea wants to have a say in the development of the huge Simandou iron deposit (south-east) and in the long term to make its voice heard on the price of iron or bauxite on the markets, said the chief of the Mohamed Béavogui government.
The head of the ruling junta, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, on Thursday ordered the cessation of all activity in Simandou, one of the largest iron deposits in the world, but also a sea serpent.
Exploitation has been hampered for years by disputes over mining rights, suspicions of corruption and the scale of the investments to be made in a landlocked region and a country cruelly lacking in infrastructure.
Blocks 3 and 4 of Simandou are held by the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto, the Chinese Chinalco and, to a lesser extent, the Guinean State. They are in the exploratory phase. Blocks 1 and 2 were awarded in 2019 to the Société Minière de Boké (SMB), a consortium formed by the Singaporean shipowner Winning Shipping, the Chinese aluminum producer Shandong Weiqiao, the Yantaï Port group and the Guinean transport company and logistics United Mining Supply.
The soldiers who came to power by force in 2021 had hastened to reassure the foreign partners by assuring that the agreements made would be respected.
The head of the military-installed government said Saturday evening on national television that stopping activities in Simandou was only a “little break” and that there was no question of renegotiating the agreements.
“It’s not a renegotiation, it’s just a reorganization of the way of working,” he stressed. “Guinea does not want to review the contracts, nor the conventions, Guinea wants a real co-development of this project”.
“This is the biggest mining project of the next 30 years in the world, this project cannot be done without Guinea”, he recalled.
He did not detail what exactly the authorities are asking for. “We just want to take a little break, agree on a few things,” he said.
According to experts, Guinea could have the world’s largest untapped reserves of high-grade iron, among other considerable natural and mining resources (bauxite, gold, diamonds, hydrological capital).
But these resources are of little benefit to the Guineans themselves, and the country remains very poor.
“We are the leading bauxite producers in the world today, so the price of bauxite goes through Guinea and we must have a say and there must be a fallout for our populations,” noted the head of government. .
“Tomorrow the price of iron will be calculated from Guinea, we must ensure that Guinea wins there,” he insisted.