In a video posted on Facebook, The head of Guinea's military government, Mamady Doumbouya, warned foreign mining companies to set up processing plants and share revenues equally with the country.
Doumbouya le-a cerut celor două companii să depună propuneri și un calendar pentru construcția topitorii de bauxită până la sfârșitul lunii mai.
Guinea has the world's largest reserves of bauxite, estimated at 7.4 billion tons, and is the second-largest producer of the mineral.
Bauxita este un mineral folosit la fabricarea aluminiului, vital pentru industria auto și alimentară.
About half of China's bauxite needs come from Guinea.
Este bine cunoscut faptul că beneficiile exploatării miniere a bauxitei sau a altor resurse naturale bogate, precum fierul, aurul și diamantele, rămân inegale.
Experții subliniază lipsa investițiilor în dezvoltarea economică locală, lipsa infrastructurii esențiale, cum ar fi drumurile, corupția endemică și lacunele în legile existente. Drept urmare, Guineea rămâne una dintre cele mai sărace țări din lume, în ciuda faptului că este bogată în resurse naturale.
"Despite the boom in bauxite mining, we have to admit that expected revenues are lower than expected, and we cannot continue this stupid game that perpetuates huge inequality in our relations," Doumbouya said in the video.
Bauxita din Guineea are un număr de jucători activi, inclusiv Win Alliance (SMB), un consorțiu format din Vallee International-din Singapore, Shandong Weiqiao și Yantai Port, precum și companiile rusești de aluminiu Rusal și Rio Tinto și Chinalco din China.
The Bauxite project is the largest mining project in Guinea, supplying more than half of the total imports of bauxite to China every year. The smooth operation of the project is of great significance to the resource security of China's aluminum industry.
Mr Doumbouya said smelting bauxite in Guinea "is becoming inevitable, it is imperative and it cannot be delayed".
Doumbouya stressed that previous agreements between the Guinean government and different groups stipulated that smelting would be carried out locally, but those promises had not been fulfilled. The failure to respect these agreements was "invalid cause" and their application was "non-negotiable" for the government.
On March 27, The African mining circle reported in the article "Guinea's military government, Winning Alliance and Rio Tinto sign an agreement, Simandou Iron Ore Mine may Resume operation, vying for the right to transport minerals" : Guinea, the world's largest exporter of bauxite, has a law giving it the right to ship mining companies 50 percent of their bauxite exports, but that law has only now come into effect, government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo said in an emailed statement late Thursday.
Since taking power last year, guinea's military government has been negotiating and pressuring international mining giants around core interests such as Simandou iron ore, bauxite, railway construction and transportation rights, hoping to gain more benefits from the development of mineral resources.
