What is the vision of the alliance ? Talk us through the Bauxite potential in Guinea . What does this mean for the future of mining in Guinea ?
What were some of the challenges you faced when starting the AMR ?
RESPONSIBLE MINING to undertake this great challenge .
What is the vision of the alliance ? Talk us through the Bauxite potential in Guinea . What does this mean for the future of mining in Guinea ?
Guinea has the biggest world reserves of bauxite and it is of the best quality in the world . But like many sectors in Guinea , the mining industry is an incredibly under developed one . We saw this as a great opportunity to make a change .
Over the course of the last five years , a number of big players of the bauxite industry have arrived in Guinea , looking to establish a major footprint in the area . We are talking some very serious companies like SMB , a Guinean-Chinese consortium which was the first new market entry into the West African country for 15 years . Since then there are also some companies like ALUFER ( through the Bel Air Project ) and the Guinea Alumina Corporation ( GAC ) that are very close to a stage of production .
Quite frankly , this is an amazing sign for Guinea as it represents a real shift in the industry , showing that this is an area that can and does attract some serious major investments .
AMR ’ s project started over 4 years ago . We went through some hard times because we had to continue developing our project during the Ebola crisis . AMR team never stopped working in Guinea during this tragedy and we managed to finalise all our engineering studies .
Now that the crisis is over and that AMR is not so far anymore to get into production , we focus on the DNA of our company which is to develop a mining production with the highest standards regarding the environment and the local communities .
What were some of the challenges you faced when starting the AMR ?
When you are starting any form of mining operation in Africa , challenge is inescapable . One challenge in particular was a cultural one . When we started out , my business partner and I were in our twenties and when you ’ re that young , it is not always easy to be taken seriously in this sector . You could come with a world
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