Ivorian Miner is in talks with Sumitomo for bauxite deposit venture worth $375 million

Lagune Exploitation Afrique in Ivory Coast reported that it is in talks with a unit of Sumitomo Corp. to build a partnership and develop a bauxite deposit and two alumina plants for 218 billion CFA francs (US$375 million).

More details are not available yet other than the fact that Lagune is offering 25 per cent stake in the company. Both the Chief Executive Officer of Lagune Exploitation Afrique, Moumoni Bictogo, and General Manager at Sumimoto’s liaison office for West Africa, Masafumi Tanimoto, have declined to make further comments on the nature of talks between each other.

In an interview on Monday, May 28, 2018, at West African nation’s commercial capital Abidjan, Moumouni Bictogo shared; the company is already developing 34.5 million tonnes of Benene deposit in the country’s east, which will produce 750,000 tonnes of the alumina-making ingredients and 350,000 tonnes of calcinated metal in a year. The officer also said in the interview that the company is planning to build two alumina plants by 2025.

To say the truth, bauxite producers in Ivory Coast are taking keen interests in boosting their production capacities, as China’s demand for aluminium has risen by almost half. Neighbouring Guinea is also now China’s largest bauxite supplier after overtaking Australia in 2017. Guinea ships about 40 per cent of its total imports to China.