Guinea Gives Rio Tinto, Partners Ultimatum on Simandou Project

Ougna Camara, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) --

Guinea authorities have given a 14-day ultimatum to parties involved in the development of the giant Simandou iron ore deposit to form a joint venture and start the project.

The partners, made up of Rio Tinto, China-backed SMB-Winning Consortium and the government must ensure that funding for the project requiring $15 billion investment is “effective,” the head of Guinea’s ruling military junta, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, said at a meeting with miners broadcast Saturday on state-owned Radio Television Guineenne.

“Since March 25, we have noticed a gap between our vision of the implementation of the terms of the framework agreement and our expectations,” Doumbouya said. “This situation is not only regrettable but above all unacceptable.”

Simandou is the world’s biggest untapped iron ore resource. Rio Tinto and Aluminum Corp. of China, known as Chinalco, hold blocks 3 and 4 while blocks 1 and 2 are controlled by the Winning Consortium.

Read More: China-Backed Group Can Resume Simandou Operations: Guinea