UAE firms, Guinea sign $5bn bauxite deal

Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala and Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) have signed a five-billion-dollar deal with Guinea that should secure resources for UAE aluminium makers, a statement said. The accord will see Guinea Alumina Corp, a joint venture owned by Mubadala and DUBAL, investing in the construction of a bauxite export mine in Sangaredi, in western Guinea, the government of Guinea said in a statement late Monday. Guinea sits on almost half of the world's bauxite reserves and the Sangaredi mine is due to be operational by 2017. A multi-user port in the West African nation will also be developed in Kamsar by 2017, while an alumina refinery with an initial capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum would be constructed and ready to operate in 2018. "This agreement will deliver an estimated $5 billion of foreign investment into Guinea over the next eight years," said Guinea's Minister of Mines and Geology Mohamed Lamine Fofana. "The development plan will create at peak 14,000 direct and indirect jobs and contribute substantially to Guinea?s GDP," gross domestic product, he said. The agreement was signed during the Guinean Partners and Investors Conference in Abu Dhabi. DUBAL's chief executive officer Abdulla Kalban, who is also the chairman of GAC, said the agreement delivers on the "strategy to secure upstream resources within the aluminium value chain." Mubadala and DUBAL took full control of Guinea's GAC in May after they jointly acquired 66.6 percent stake owned by BHP Billiton and Global Alumina. Previously, Mubadala and DUBAL held 8 percent and 25 percent of GAC's shares respectively.