CBG Extraordinary Board Meeting: Minister Bouna Sylla in favour of building a refinery

The Minister of Mines and Geology, Bouna Sylla, chaired an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors of Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG) on Monday. The meeting was devoted to a key issue: the construction of the CBG refinery, a strategic priority for the Guinean government.

Against a backdrop of modernisation and local processing of mining resources, Guinea aims to speed up the implementation of this major project. With this in mind, the Minister brought together the CBG's main partners, in particular HALCO, which includes ALCOA, Rio Tinto-Alcan and DADCO, to discuss ways and means of bringing the project to fruition quickly.

At the meeting, Bouna Sylla reiterated that local processing of mining products is a major focus of the Guinean government's policy. "You will recall that on 23 December last year, we signed an agreement with the strategic committee for the implementation of the refinery agreement, for which preparatory work has already begun. The actual construction work will start on 31 March," he said.

The Minister emphasised the need for greater involvement from all players, including new mining investors, to ensure that a refinery of optimum size is built in phases. This pragmatic approach, proposed by the President of the Republic, General Mamadi Doumbouya, aims to strengthen the country's industrial capacity and maximise the benefits of mineral exploitation for the national economy.

Speaking at the ceremony, CBG Managing Director Karifa Condé reaffirmed the company's total commitment to completing this ambitious project. "CBG is a stable, high-performance company that has been operating in the field since 1973, without any major difficulties. We have just finalised a billion-dollar expansion project. We're going to go ahead with this refinery project as planned," he assures us.

With the adoption of a timetable validated by all stakeholders, the construction of this refinery marks a decisive step in the industrialisation of the Guinean mining sector. The government and its partners remain determined to make this project a major lever for the country's economic development.