Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), which is developing a US$1 billion bauxite mine in Guinea, yesterday said that it had completed preliminary work on the project.
The company said that Jan de Nul, a Belgian marine contractor that also worked on the construction of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, had completed site infill and elevation of 50 hectares of land at Kamsar, which will help with the development of rail infrastructure and export facilities for the project.
The container terminal facility at Kamsar port will be used to export the bauxite.
“This early milestone shows good progress in our Guinea project, which will boost Guinea’s economy, create value for EGA, and secure the supply of natural resources that we need,” said Yousuf Bastaki, EGA’s executive vice president for upstream.
The company plans to start commercial production of bauxite from the Guinean mine in 2018 and will later ramp up production to 12 million tonnes per year.
In December, EGA exported the first bauxite bulk sample shipment to China from Guinea.
Guinea has about 7 billion tonnes of bauxite resources, over a quarter of the global total.
Along with its project in Guinea, EGA is in the process of building a $3bn alumina refinery in the UAE as a boom in regional infrastructure projects spurs demand.
The refinery is expected to be operational by next year and will be completed in two phases, each with an annual production capacity of 2 million tonnes.
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