World's Largest Mining Project Finally Set to Begin

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The world's largest mining project will go ahead in West Africa following the board's approval at mining giant Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) (London, England).

The company is looking to invest US$6.2 billion at the Simandou project in the Republic of Guinea. "The board yesterday sanctioned the biggest mining project in the world," company chief executive Jakob Stausholm told The Financial Times. Total investment in the project, which involves the government of the Republic of Guinea and seven other companies, will top US$20 billion. The second largest partner in the project is China's Chinalco (Beijing, China), the world's biggest aluminum producer, which has yet to make a final investment decision. Stausholm said he was "very confident" this will happen soon. Another partner is the world's largest steel producer, Baowu Group (Shanghai, China), which recently raised US$1.4 billion from a Chinese bond sale to help finance the project. Both companies are state-owned and in discussions with the Chinese government regarding support. The Simandou project has been plagued with problems for almost 30 years. Rio Tinto won the original license back in 1997, but over the last three decades the country has suffered numerous internal revolutions, changes of government and heads of state.

The Simandou mountain range lies in the southeast of the Republic of Guinea, over a surface area more than 100 kilometers (km) and containing the world's largest untapped reserve of high-grade iron ore, estimated at more than 2 billion tonnes. The mining concession is divided into four blocks. Rio Tinto holds rights to Simandou's blocks 3 and 4 through Rio Tinto Simfer--a joint venture between Rio Tinto, Chinalco and the Guinanan government. Rio Tinto is also working with the government and Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS) (Conakry, Guinea), the lead developers of blocks 1 and 2, to co-develop the infrastructure needed to export mined iron ore from the far southeast of the country to Guinea's coast in the west. It will include building 600 kilometers of rail infrastructure, spanning the length of the country, and will allow the export of up to 120 million tonnes per year of mined iron ore by Simfer and WCS.

In January, Industrial Info reported on the status of a number of Rio Tinto's leading iron ore, copper and aluminum projects. For additional information, see January 17, 2024, article - Global Miner Rio Tinto Moves Forward with Copper, Aluminum, Iron Ore Projects. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence Metals & Minerals Project Database can read project reports for Simandou blocks 1 and 2 and blocks 3 and 4.

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