In Guinea, the president of the transition wants the bauxite, essential for the manufacture of aluminum, to be transformed on the spot from now on. To ensure fair revenue sharing, it requires mining companies to build refineries. They have until May 31 to propose a precise timetable.
From our correspondent in Conakry, Matthias Raynal
Six companies responded to Mamadi Doumbouya’s invitation for a meeting during which the Minister of Mines took the floor. ” We are obliged, in their respective basic agreements, to build refineries on Guinean territory he says.
But the method questions. For Thierno Madiou Barry, CEO of Kebo Energy, a company that is developing a bauxite mining project, it is up to the promoter to decide. ” It is the promoter who programs for an industry. It is not because a head of state wants an industry that one can make an industry “, he believes.
Extremely high energy costs
The president of the transition says to himself ” aware of the complexity of a refinery construction project “, but it’s ” non-negotiable “, he insists. Mamadi Doumbouya warns: any delay “ will result in penalties “. ” It must also be understood that the transformation of bauxite into alumina will create the value chain, but also generates extremely high costs, especially energy. So, it is feasible provided that certain infrastructural constraints in terms of energy production “, deciphers the economist Mamoudou Touré.
According to the specialist, bauxite represents 8% of the state budget and 6% of Guinea’s GDP. This is not enough for the president of the transition who denounces a ” inequality in relations between Conakry and mining companies. A ” fool’s game which he wants to end.
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