Industry
In general terms, industry appears as a disaster-stricken sector. Thanks to the new liberalization policy, some private investors have expressed interest in taking over some enterprises or in establishing SMEs. In addition to the rare plants existing before and which have survived the First Republic, new industrial units have been created.
With varied successful stories we can name ENTAG (tobacco processing), SOMIAG, SOBRAGUI, SALGUIDIA, Ciment Factory of Guinea, CEG (mineral water), SOGUIPHARM and SOGUIPAH.
The Guinean industry with the private sector as key player since 1985 is characterized by youthfulness, limited scale, inadequate promotion of resources and local products, exclusive quasi-orientation to the domestic market and to the production of consumer goods (agrifoodstuffs).
Mining and geology
Mining companies
The mining industry mainly relates to the extraction of bauxite, diamond and gold.
Three big companies are operating in the sector of bauxite and alumina. They are:
- Compagnie des Buxites de Kindia (CBK)-Kindia Bauxite Company. Until very recently this company was operating under the name of SBK (Société des Bauxites de Kindia) and used to belong entirely to the government before being taken over by RUSAL. It produces 2.5 million tons of bauxite for export to UKRAINE mainly.
- ACG ( Alumina Company of Guinea) is producing 700,000 tons of alumina. It is operated by RUSAL. The sectors of gold and diamond are involving two types of mining: artisanal operations based on traditional methods to extract alluvial gold and diamond; and industrial mining. Small scale miners are involved in the first type of mining and their production estimated at 100,000 carats per year is far from being negligible.Companies involved in the sector of gold and diamond at the moment are the following:
- SAG (Ashanti Goldfield Guinea) which produced over 10 tons of gold in 2003;
- SMD (Dinguiraye Gold Mining Company) controlled by KENOR, a Norwegian company. Its production was 4 tons of gold in 2002.
- AREDOR (part of its concession has been assigned to First City Mining of Canada) resumed diamond mining in 1996. The production has reached 100,000 carats.New OperationsSeveral new operations have started already or are at the stage of take-off.In the area of gold and diamond, the following companies are involved : Semanfo (from Canada) and DE CASSIDYGOLD Corporation for gold; TRIVALENCE Mining (Canada) and DIA BRAS for diamond. Already in the field, these companies are at the exploration stage.In the bauxite/alumina sector, a number of big projects are in the process of being finalized.KAMSAR Alumina Plant Project conceived by Alcoa and Alcan. It is an alumina refinery project expected to produce 1.5 million tons of alumina per year.GLOBAL Project composed of MARUBENI and MITSUBISHI from Japan in partnership with an American venture capital company. They have just concluded a convention with the Guinean government for the construction of a 2.8 million ton capacity alumina refinery.
In the field of iron, two large projects are on the path of implementation:
- The SIMANDOU iron ore mining project conducted by RIO TINTO, and
- The MOUNT NIMBA iron ore mining project with EURONINBA (a consortium of European, Japanese and South African/Australian companies). Connected with these two operations is the TRANSGUINEAN Railway project, a railway line linking the Forest Region to the Atlantic Ocean, passing through the center of Guinea.