Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) said late last week that it anticipates producing bauxite ore at its project in Guinea either later this year or early next year.
“It is predicted that at the end of this year or the beginning of next year we will launch,” explained Chalco senior vice president Lu Dongliang. He was responding to a query about the progress of the firm’s US$500-million project at Boffa in the Boké Region
Lu went on to say that Chalco intends to continue searching for adequate bauxite supplies abroad, including in locales like Australia, Laos, Indonesia, and Cambodia, as the People’s Republic of China possesses only 3 percent of the world’s known reserves of it. Although the firm currently possesses mining rights in both Laos and Indonesia, mining in the latter country has been suspended for almost four years.
Chinalco bought the rights to the project from Rio Tinto after recordings surfaced that seemed to suggest that one of President Alpha Condé’s close advisors received millions from Rio Tinto in exchange for the Simandou concession. It’s the first phase in a three-phase plan that will ultimately yield primary aluminium production.
Listed on the Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York stock exchanges, Chalco is a publicly-traded subsidiary of the state-run firm Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco). The firm’s main activities include extraction of alumina, electrolyzation of virgin aluminium, and the processing and production of aluminium.