A giant iron-ore mine could bring Guinea riches or ruin

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Underneath a ridge in the southern highlands of Guinea, a west African country of 14m people, lies one of the world’s biggest deposits of iron ore. Mining of the sprawling 3bn-tonne deposit, which would be worth some $315bn at current market prices, has been on hold for nearly 30 years.

On December 3rd the first batch of ore at last left the country’s shores, on a ship bound for China. Simandou, as the mine is known, has the potential to shake up the global iron-ore market by shifting dominance from Australia to China, which owns a big stake in the project. It could prove transformative for Guinea, which wants to use the revenue to overhaul everything from roads to education.

Most immediately, it bolsters the country’s military junta and its leader, General Mamady Doumbouya, who wants to legitimise his rule in a presidential election on December 28th. For decades it looked as though Simandou’s riches might never be dug up. Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian miner, first won exploration rights in 1997.

Apart from bribery scandals, corporate rivalries and political instability, including two coups d’état, the project was long stymied by its high upfront costs. The mine sits in a remote part of the highlands far from the sea. The dirt tracks that lead to it are frequently washed away by torrential rains and rendered unnavigable by thick fog.

Tapping the site required the construction of a 620km railway as well as a new seaport. Because the waters off Guinea are too shallow for big ships, small boats have to ferry the ore 20km from shore to a larger vessel waiting in deeper water. To transport construction material to the site, lorries had to travel around 20 days along poor roads from