Guinea has started 2018 with big export plans. One of its bauxite mining companies La Guineenne des Mines (GDM) announced shipment of their first bauxite consignment from a western Boke project yesterday. The miner said it aims to export 2 to 4 million tonnes bauxite this year.
Guinea has been racing past many countries to become the key bauxite exporter globally. With the highest bauxite reserves totalling 7.4 billion tonnes and a solid export-oriented growth plan, the African nation stands to dominate the world as the top bauxite supplier of 2018. A three-year historical data set clearly indicates at that trend.
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China the top producer of aluminium and the biggest importer of bauxite globally imported 27,625,811 tonnes (27.6 million tonnes) bauxite from Guinea in 2017. In December only, Chinese bauxite imports from Guinea totalled 3 million tonnes. All other bauxite supplying countries, namely- Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, India, Montenegro, Jamaica, and Solomon Island exported lesser quantity of bauxite to China than Guinea.
Global trade data suggests that Guinea’s total bauxite export will reach an estimated 34.62 million tonnes in 2018.
Coming to GDM’s bauxite export plan, the company shipped 174,000 tonnes of bauxite as its first cargo. Firms owning the Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) bauxite project negotiated the purchasing and export rights of GDM’s bauxite production.
Guinea’s bauxite industry is flourishing on the back of two major miners- SMB and CBG. SMB produced around 30 million tonnes of bauxite last year, and CBG- jointly owned by the Guinean government, Alcoa, Rio Tinto Alcan and Dadco, produced around 15 million tonnes of bauxite in 2017.
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