Africa has become the world's main bauxite producing area

Africa has become the world’s main bauxite producing area

Swiss media “Agence Econfin” published a special survey article on May 2, 2019, analyzing and studying the distribution of bauxite resources in Africa.

The article stated that the African continent has abundant bauxite resource reserves. Up to now, the African countries that have discovered reserves of bauxite resources include:

Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Madagascar.

Among them, Guinea has the most abundant bauxite resources, with proven reserves of 25 billion tons, accounting for one-third of the world’s proven reserves. In addition, according to industry experts, the total potential bauxite reserves in Guinea should exceed 40 billion tons.

Guinea’s bauxite resources are mainly concentrated in the Boké region (Région de Boké). The reserves of the Boké region account for 50% of the total reserves of Guinea. The remaining half is distributed in the Fouta-Djalon plateau region and the upper few regions in the north (la Haute-Guinée)

According to World Bank statistics, Guinea mined 42.17 million tons of bauxite in 2017 and about 60 million tons in 2018. Its output ranks third in the world, behind China and Australia.

Since 2017, Guinea’s bauxite exports to China accounted for approximately 50% of China’s total imports, making it China’s largest source of bauxite imports.

The main force in exporting bauxite to China is the Winning Consortium, a consortium composed of Shandong Weiqiao Venture Group, Yantai Port Group, Singapore Winning, and Guinea UMS (United Mining Supply). In 2018, the Win Alliance exported about 38 million tons of bauxite to China.

In addition, the British Alufer Mining mining company’s Bel Air bauxite project in Guinea was officially put into operation in August 2018. The first phase was designed to produce 500 tons per year, and the second phase increased to 10 million tons, all of which were also exported to China.

In addition, the Guinea branch GAC (Guinea Aluminium Company) of the UAE Global Aluminium Group (EGA) in Sangaredi launched its bauxite project in June 2019. The first phase is designed to produce 12 million tons of aluminum per year. Earth ore, the second phase will be completed and put into production in 2021, and the output will be increased to 30 million tons; part of the bauxite ore is also planned to be exported to China.

In view of this, industry insiders predict that in 2019, Guinea’s export of bauxite to China is expected to exceed 50 million tons.