China CWE's proposed $2bn dam in Guinea to boost expansion of bauxite processing

Guinea is in talks with China International Water & Electric Corp. to build a $2 billion hydro-power dam that would almost double the West African country’s energy output, providing new capacity for the expansion of bauxite processing, said Lansana Fofana, an energy ministry official.

The 550-megawatt Souapiti dam would be CWE’s second project in the country, after it completed the 240-megawatt Kaleta dam about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Conakry, in July. The Kaleta project tripled Guinea’s electricity production and boosted efforts to expand grid access to more of the country’s 12 million citizens.

“The idea is to feed the mining industry,” said Fofana, the head of the two hydro-power projects, in an interview this month during an inspection of the 1,545-meter (5,069-feet) long Kaleta dam. “We want to build refineries for our bauxite. We will even be able to position ourselves as an energy exporter.”

Fofana’s deputy, Jiahua Liu, who is also CWE’s senior-most official at Kaleta, said in the interview that the Chinese company is interested in the Souapiti project. It’s up to the government to decide who builds it, he said.

Guinea has the world’s biggest reserves of bauxite, which is refined into alumina and then smelted into aluminum, and its mines are the backbone of the $6.6 billion economy. Souapiti will be built on the Konkoure river, about 2 kilometers upstream from Kaleta, with a reservoir big enough for both plants to function even when the river loses most of its flow during the six-month dry season.

Export-Import Bank of China has shown interest in financing Souapiti, according to Fofana. “We’re in talks with Ex-Im Bank and CWE,” Fofana said. “We’re looking for other investors. We’re open to the world.”

Gabriel Curtis, the head of Guinea’s Private Investment Promotion Agency said, “In the next five years the goal is to buy the energy independence of the country.”