Guinea mining sector attracts $6.2 billion investments in 5 years span

The West African nation that recently faced a political crisis, Guinean’s mining sector has attracted $6.2 billion of investments in the span of five years which signifies 2015-2020. Hence it kept the nation’s economy resilient amid the epidemic Ebola and Covid-19 pandemic.

Out of the $25 billion of outstanding investments commitments, $6.4 billion has already been invested in the sector, of which 97% or $ 6.2 billion USD during the above said period alone.

According to Boké Mining Company (SMB), the investment figures comprise several mining operations and the accomplishment of crucial works in the mining sector during the five-year phase. The project of the Santou-Dapilon railway that appended to a set of investments made between Boffa and Boffé amounted to $3 billion.

The investments Guinea received includes the endeavours made by Chalco in the field of bauxite, Ashapura, AGB2A, etc.

However, the mammoth investments of funds are anticipated in Guinea, especially with the possibilities of the exploitation of blocks 1 and 2 of Simandou by SMB-Winning, surprisingly a cost of around $16 billion.

The comprehensive amount of all these investments also stipulates a substantial assortment in the selection of partners and financial institutions in Guinea’s mining sector arena.

It also needs to be notified that diversified nation’s like the UAE, India, China, Australia, while précised large Western countries such as the United States, Germany, in particular, are also seeking allies consequently as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the German Guarantee Agency (UFK) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - of the World Bank Group, etc.

Furthermore, the development of the railway track in the country reported an explosion of bauxite production, which surged from around 21 million tonnes in 2015 to over 80 million tonnes in 2020.

Presently, around 335,000 local Guineans out of a population of more than 12 million depends on their livelihood directly from the mining sector in a West African state where the inequality between the rich and the poor are highly staggering.

The report of the Canadian independent non-partisan research and educational organization, Fraser Institute stated Guinea ranked 103^rd in the index of world attractiveness of its mining sector, whereas, in the next five years phase the same African nation’s ranking whirled to 20^th place.