China's State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) will begin construction of the largest alumina refinery in Guinea, West Africa, this year. Over the past three years, the company has been producing bauxite in Guinea.
According to Bloomberg, China's SPIC announced in a statement that construction will start in March this year, with the aim to complete a refinery with an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of alumina by the end of 2027.
This plant will become the largest alumina refinery in Guinea and the only one built locally following Rusal.
The statement also noted that China's SPIC will build a 250 MW power plant and supply 100 MW to the national grid. The company transported 3.14 million tonnes of bauxite in 2023.
Guinea is the world's largest exporter of red ore, and its military government has been encouraging mining companies to build processing facilities locally to promote economic growth.
Two months before China's SPIC reached an agreement with the Guinean government, the military government led by Mamady Doumbouya halted the bauxite transportation of Emirates Global Aluminium until the company accelerated its refinery project.
The statement from China's SPIC indicates that if the company fails to achieve commercial production by December 2028, the state reserves the right to retract the company's mining concession.