discovered a gargantuan deposit of iron ore in the misty Simandou mountains 17 years ago, many Guineans hoped it would transform their impoverished country. The remote location makes its estimated 2.4bn tonnes of iron ore—valued at perhaps $230bn—hard to mine. Gyrating commodity prices scared off investment. So did lurid corruption scandals involving billionaires, government officials and mining companies.
A new chapter has opened in the saga. An embattled Israeli diamond tycoon, Beny Steinmetz, surrendered his claims to Simandou in February, after ten years of legal battles with Guinea’s government and Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining giant. Simandou North was put up for tender.
A shift into iron ore presents challenges. Building a port and a railway through the country’s malaria-infested forest will take years and could cost much more than the estimated $10bn.will have to co-ordinate with Rio Tinto and Chalco, a Hong Kong-listed company controlled by Chinalco, a Chinese state-run firm, which jointly control Simandou’s southern blocks. The Boké region has been plagued by riots. Many local residents are angered by lack of access to clean water or health care.
More environmental destruction. Future generations are the ones paying the deficit.
Keep destroying the environment. Your children and grandchildren will pay by wearing gas mask in order to breath.
15 bn who would have thought
There goes the forest
Else, there will be suddenly an uncontrollable forest fire...