After decades of setbacks, Guinea’s vast Simandou iron ore deposit — one of the world’s richest untapped mineral reserves — is finally coming to life. A new railway now carries ore from the country’s highlands to a purpose-built Atlantic port, marking a turning point for one of Africa’s most ambitious industrial ventures.
Back in April 1998, a young geologist named Sidiki Kone spent six hours trekking through the dense Guinea Highlands in search of iron ore. “It was extremely difficult,” he recalled. “In front was forest. It was forest to the left and forest to the right. Behind it was the same thing. And I said, ‘How is this work possible?’”
Kone was part of Rio Tinto Group’s exploration team, which had confirmed vast iron ore reserves buried beneath one of the planet’s most biodiverse regions. Simandou was first explored in the 1950s during French colonial rule, but political upheaval, corruption, and corporate infighting left the resource untouched for nearly 30 years.
That long limbo is now over. The $23 billion Simandou project, the largest mining investment in African history, aims to extract ore with exceptionally high iron content and transport it via a 600-kilometer railway to the coast. The first shipment is expected to reach China’s steel mills by the end of the year.
With estimated reserves exceeding 3 billion tons, Simandou could make Guinea the continent’s second-largest exporter of minerals and metals. The development also promises to shift global power dynamics in the $300 billion iron ore market, long dominated by giants Rio Tinto, BHP, and Brazil’s Vale.
Chinese companies now control most of Simandou. Even Rio’s largest shareholder is its partner, Aluminum Corp. of China (Chinalco). The project’s rapid construction reflects China’s infrastructure expertise, with mine-site bridges and conveyor systems modeled on those used in its high-speed rail network.
“China has built this repertoire you don’t get in the West,” said Chris Aitchison, head of Simfer, the consortium developing one half of the mine.
For Beijing, Simandou offers leverage in reshaping global commodity flows. Analysts warn that new supply from Guinea could give China greater influence over prices. “Never before has China held this level of pricing power over the seaborne iron ore trade,” said Tom Price, head of commodities strategy at Panmure Liberum.
The project’s turbulent history reads like a geopolitical saga. Since the 1990s, Simandou has been mired in corruption scandals, regime changes, and lawsuits. Rights to parts of the deposit shifted hands multiple times, from Rio Tinto to Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and Vale SA, before returning to a partnership dominated by Chinese-backed Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS).
The turning point came in 2019 when WCS and Singaporean investors secured rights to develop two major blocks. By 2022, Rio and WCS agreed to jointly finance the massive rail and port infrastructure, with Guinea receiving a 15% state stake.
Now, the first ore shipment is imminent. Rio plans to reach full production within 30 months, while WCS is targeting similar output levels. Combined, their capacity could account for around 5% of global iron ore supply.
For Guinea, the stakes are enormous. The International Monetary Fund estimates the mines could lift the nation’s GDP by more than 25% by 2030. Billboards in the capital, Conakry, promote “Simandou 2040,” a national plan to channel mining revenue into broader development.
“We will use the project as a catalyst,” said Djiba Diakite, head of Guinea’s Simandou Strategic Committee. “The goal for us is not to take the money and spend it. It’s to take the money, a good part of it, to develop the other sectors of our country.”
Still, the project’s environmental cost is high. The mines cut through one of West Africa’s most biologically diverse forests, home to endangered chimpanzees and hundreds of villages. Construction accidents have also claimed workers’ lives.
Pairs of giant Wabtec locomotives now haul thousands of tons of ore across hundreds of bridges to the coast. Once the mines reach full capacity in 2028, a fully loaded ship will depart daily for Asia.
For Rio’s commercial chief Bold Baatar, who now oversees the project, Simandou’s transformation is almost surreal. “I don’t think there are many mining executives that have anything like this through their life,” he said. “I mean, it’s the largest mining project in the world.”
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