EGA's Guinea Alumina Corporation secures US$750 million loan for its Guinea bauxite project

Emirates Global Aluminium’s (EGA) wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC) has secured Guinea’s largest-ever project financing for its greenfield bauxite mining project in the West African country, which is expected to lift up Guinea’s economy significantly.

The total US$750 million loan for a period of 12 to 14 years was funded by development finance institutions, export credit agencies and international commercial banks, first time for a project in Guinea. This loan for GAC opens up the way for international financing for Guinea and boosting the national economy.

The fund will support the development of the mine and the supporting infrastructure like a port, railways during the first phase of the investment.  The mine is supposed to have some of the world’s best quality bauxite resources.  GAC US$1.4 billion bauxite project is one of the largest Greenfield investments in Guinea which is a part of EGA’S upstream integration strategy.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA and Chairman of GAC, said: “The partnership we have formed with GAC’s lenders secures the long-term success of our Guinea project and for EGA this project financing is in line with our capital allocation strategy. We are committed to completing and then operating the GAC project to high standards, contributing to improving sustainability performance in Guinea whilst helping to grow the economy.”

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed total financing of $330 million. GAC’s technical, commercial, environmental and social commitments and performance were reviewed thoroughly before the approval of the financing.  GAC is required to continue to comply with IFC’s global performance standards under the terms of the project.

Sérgio Pimenta, IFC’s Vice-President for the Middle-East and Africa, said “We are happy to support this project as it will help Guinea increase its exports and bolster local economic growth, including through the procurement of goods and services from the domestic market and significant improvements to rail and port infrastructure.”

GAC project construction is about 90% complete and is expected to start production in H2 2019 and once complete the project is expected to mine 12 million tonnes of bauxite per year. This will be a landmark project for Guinea with the world’s largest bauxite reserves.

IFC is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets.