Guinea Bauxite Mining and Export

Recently, the Statistics Bureau of Guinea released the production and export of major bauxite mines in 2021. According to statistics, last year, Guinea produced 87.44 million tons of bauxite, of which the export volume was 85.66 million tons, with a difference of 1.78 million tons.

Considering that there is only one alumina refinery plant (with a production capacity of 650,000 tons) operated in Guinea, the amount of bauxite digested in China is 1.2-1.4 million tons. From the published data, it can be concluded that Guinea is basically used for export except for a small amount of self-use and inventory.

In 2021, China imported 54.82 million tons of minerals into Guinea, accounting for 64% of the total exports of minerals from Guinea, and the remaining 30.84 million tons of minerals were exported to other countries.

It is understood that Rusal’s bauxite did not flow to China, besides its alumina factory in Guinea, the rest of the bauxite was supplied to the alumina factory in nikolayev, Ukraine, and the alumina refinery plant in Ireland. However, after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the alumina refinery plant in nikolayev was shut down, and the bauxite from Rusal in Guinea will be mainly shipped to the plant in Ireland. Russia has two mining areas for bauxite mining in Guinea, namely CBK in Kindia and COBAD in Boké. In 2021, the output are 2.651 million tons and 3.588 million tons respectively. After removing the 5.88 million tons bauxite of Rusal, the remaining 24.96 million tons bauxite, that is to say, the remaining 25 million tons bauxite are exported to other countries.

Judging from the export flow of each mine, most of the bauxites from SMB-Winning, Chinalco (Chalco), CDM CHINE and SPIC should be shipped to China. Among them, SMB-Winning distributes many mining areas in Guinea, mainly concentrated in Boké.

In 2021, the output of SMB bauxite was 31.533 million tons, and the export volume was equivalent to the output. Chinalco’s mining area in Guinea is in Boffa, with a total output of 11.716 million tons in 2021. CDM CHINE, a mine of CHICO in Guinea, is also located in Boffa. According to the data, SPIC has two mining areas in Guinea, of which the main mining area is the mining area in Boffa.

In addition, most of AGB2A bauxites are also exported to China.

AGB2A’s exported bauxites mainly come from GBT mine, and its other mining area is AXIS. Both mining areas are in Boffa. In 2021, due to various factors, its bauxite output and export volume were only 899,000 tons and 804,000 tons. It is expected that this year’s output will increase.

Most of ALUFER’s bauxite was also shipped to China, but it stopped production in the second quarter of 2021, so it only produced 814,000 tons. At present, the mine has not resumed production.

In addition to the above-mentioned mines, the remaining mines with such a large export volume are CBG(Comaonie de Bauxite de Guinée, which is jointly owned by the Guinean government, Alcoa and Rio Tinto) and GAC(Guinea Alumina Corporation, United Arab Emirates Global Aluminum Group).

The mining areas of these two enterprises are in Sangareji, Guinea, which is one of the areas with the highest bauxite grade in Guinea. In 2021, CBG produced about 17.44 million tons of ore. The railway line from Sangareji to Kamsal, a port built by CBG, has a total length of 145 kilometers, and is dedicated to transporting bauxite. At present, the mining enterprises in Guinea with railway lines are Rusal, CBG and SMB.

Most other bauxite mining enterprises are transported by road to inland ports, and then transferred to large ships. Among the inland ports, Nuñ ez River in Boké and Fatala River in Boffa are the most concentrated. The inland port of SMB Winning is built on Nuñ ez River, and Nuñ ez River connects Kamsal Port. The ports of bauxite mining enterprises such as Chinalco, AGB2A and Kimbo are built on the Fatala River, connecting with the port of Boffa. In addition, the bauxite in Kindia can be shipped from the port of Conakry, the capital, and Rusal built a railway from Kindia to Conakry to transport the ore.

From the flow point of view, there are many flows of Guinean bauxites, among which Spain, United Arab Emirates, India, Germany and Canada are also the flowing countries of Guinean bauxites, in addition to the above-mentioned alumina refinery plants in Rusal, Ireland and Ukraine.

Among them, the bauxite flowing to Spain is about 4-4.5 million tons, and it is likely that it will eventually be supplied to Alcoa’s alumina refinery plant in Spain. Bauxite flowing to UAE may mainly supply EGA’s alumina refinery plant with a local capacity of 2 million tons. In addition, Germany is also one of the countries that import Guinean bauxites. An alumina refinery plant located in Stade, a town in northern Germany, is a alumina refinery plant that still uses bauxite obtained from Guinea to produce alumina. The bauxite flowing to Canada is most likely supplied by Rio Tinto to its alumina refinery plants in Canada. Of course, the bauxite flowing to India is also supplied to local alumina refinery plants in India.

That is to say, from the perspective of Guinea’s bauxite supply, except for the bauxite flowing to China, the bauxite flowing to other countries is basically supplied by CBG (Rio Tinto, Alcoa, etc.) and GAC. From the perspective of the end users, all three enterprises have related alumina refinery plants, and the bauxite from Rio Tinto and Alcoa in Guinea basically flows to their own alumina refinery plants. Compared with the other two, GAC may be the only mining enterprise that can supply a large amount of bauxite for their own use.