
A consortium of the Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) and Singapore’s Winning Shipping signed an agreement on Monday, November 26, with Guinea’s government for construction of the country’s first 1 million tonne per year alumina refinery. The refinery is part of a $3 billion project to develop Guinea’s bauxite industry, the largest in Africa, according to news published by Reuters.

The consortium said in a statement it had signed three agreements with the government for construction of the project, which is due to start next year and is expected to be completed in 2022. In addition to the refinery, the agreements include access to new mining areas and the construction of a 135 km (83.89 miles) railway track.
In a statement on Monday, production is expected to reach 10 million tonnes in the first year of operations, rising to 20 million tonnes in 2023 and 30 million tonnes in 2024.
SMB - owned by Guinea, China’s Winning Shipping Ltd, Shandong Weiqiao and UMS International Ltd – lost around 1 million to 1.2 million tonnes of bauxite production following a nearly two-week strike in May 2018.
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