Simandou mine

Simandou mine
Location
Nzérékoré Region
Country Guinea
Production
Products Iron ore
History
Opened 2013

The Simandou mine is a large iron mine located in the Simandou mountain range of southern Guinea's Nzérékoré Region. Simandou represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Guinea and in the world having estimated reserves of 2.4 billion tonnes of ore grading 65% iron metal.[1]

The Pic de Fon and Ouéléba iron deposits are located approximately 4 km from one another at the southern end of the Simandou Range, approximately 550 km ESE of the capital Conakry. Both deposits are approximately 7.5 km in length and up to 1 km wide. At both banded iron formations (metamorphosed to staurolite-grade itabirites) have been enriched to form haematite and haematite-goethite mineralisations. The potential yield of the two deposits is estimated at 2.25 billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore.[2]

In 2008 Rio Tinto Group, the licensee of the Simandou concession, was ordered by the Guinean government to relinquish the northern half (Blocks 1 and 2, east and southeast of Kerouane) to BSG Resources, a company controlled by the Israeli diamond investor Beny Steinmetz.[3] In March 2010 Rio Tinto and its biggest shareholder, Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chinalco), signed a preliminary agreement to develop Rio Tinto's iron ore project.[4][4][5]

Mining operations are expected to start before the end of 2015. Rio Tinto Limited plans to build a 650 km railway to transport iron ore from the mine to the coast, near Matakong, for export.[6] Much of the Simandou iron ore is expected to be shipped to China for steel production.[4]

The mine is expected to produce up to 95 MTpa of ore.[7]

FBI investigation

On Sunday, April 14, 2013, Frederic Cilins, an agent for Beny Steinmetz's company, was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida as a result of an FBI investigation that began in January 2013 to establish whether potential illegal payments made to obtain mining concessions in Guinea had been transferred to the United States in breach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which allows U.S. officials to pursue bribery cases abroad.[8] Cilin's detention followed covert FBI recordings of a series of meetings that allegedly showed he had plotted the destruction of documents which it is claimed could have shown the Simandou exploitation rights were acquired following the payment of millions of dollars in bribes to Guinea government officials.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Faits et chiffres". riotintosimandou.com. 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  2. ↑ http://www.hemscott.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_option=RNS_NEWS&item=64497524081696&ir_client_id=1245&transform=newsitem Rio Tinto - Iron ore resources, Simandou, Republic of Guinea, Rio Tinto News Announcement RNS Number 4634V, 29 May 2008, Accessed 12.12.2010
  3. ↑ "Rio Ordered to Give Half of Guinea Concession to BSG (Update2)". Bloomberg. 11 December 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 http://www.bulkmaterialsinternational.com/htm/w20100330.015488.htm
  5. ↑ "Rio Tinto, Chinalco, agree to develop Guinea iron ore field". AFP. 19 March 2010.
  6. ↑ "GUINEA: SIMANDOU PROJECT GAINS MOMENTUM". Railways Africa. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  7. ↑ http://www.riotinto.com/ourbusiness/simandou-4695.aspx
  8. ↑ "U.S. arrests man linked to Israeli tycoon in Africa graft probe". Reuters. April 15, 2013. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
  9. ↑ "FBI arrest agent over bribery cover up claim in battle over $10bn mountain". The Guardian. April 16, 2013. Retrieved April 17, 2013.

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