Guinea finds in China a key growth market for its bauxite produce

Guinea is readying to step up its bauxite mining operations over the next three years, a leading industry journal reported, citing Guinea Mines Minister Abdoulaye Magassouba. The country, Magassouba said, plans to increase its bauxite production in order to meet the rising ore demand from China.

Guinea aims at scaling its bauxite production to 33 million tonnes in the current financial year and raise it further to 60 million tonnes by 2020.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Guinea has bauxite reserves amounting to 40-41 billion tonnes. It makes up almost two third of the world's total bauxite reserve. The figure includes 29 billion tonnes of proven reserves and ranks first globally.

In comparison to the reserves, bauxite output in Guinea is much lower. In 2016, bauxite output in the country totalled only 27.61 million tonnes, making Guinea the fourth largest bauxite producer in the world, Australia, China and Brazil being the first three.

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Bauxite exports from Guinea to China surged 161.3 per cent year-on-year to total at 2.3 million tonnes in April 2017. The cumulative bauxite export during the initial four months of the current year reached 19.5 million tonnes.

One thing is clear, China is not in a mood to slow down on its bauxite intake. It is constantly on the lookout for a new bauxite source to meet its surging domestic demand, and Guinea although in dire need to retain its bauxite for the development of its domestic aluminium industry does not want to miss out on this opportunity, at least for the next two-three years. But to what extent it is proven right by expanding its bauxite production for the sake of export market growth at the cost of its domestic industry development- only time will tell.