MOL inks five year bauxite transport contract with Alufer Mining Limited

Mitsui O.S.K .Lines (MOL) has signed a five year bauxite transport contract with Alufer Mining Limited. Alufer is an independent mineral exploration and development company with significant bauxite assets in the Republic of Guinea.

Alufer has received all required permission from the government of Guinea for building the Bel Air bauxite mine. The Bel Air mine has a JORC compliant resource of over 146mt of trihydrate bauxite with low reactive silica.  The company is building an export facility which will enable the loading of Capesize vessels anchored 32km from the coast.

The production is likely to start in the third quarter of 2018 and reach production of 5.5 million tonnes per annum.

 "MOL continues to take a proactive stance in providing safe, reliable and efficient transport of bauxite from the Republic of Guinea and anticipates strong growth in demand for this commodity in that the current market for seaborne bauxite is approximately 100mt per annum and is forecast to grow 40% by 2025, primarily driven by import requirements in China,” according to MOL press release.

The deal was signed by Toshiaki Tanaka, MOL's Head of Dry Cargo, and Bernard Pryor at MOL's offices in Tokyo.