A new era dawned for Aluminum Corp. of China (Chinalco) when its officials recently signed a contract with Rio Tinto to develop an iron ore mine and infrastructure deep in West Africa’s jungles. Chinalco agreed to invest US$ 1.35 billion for a 47 percent stake in a joint venture mine with Rio Tinto, which received 53 percent. Their venture, in turn, will hold a 95 percent stake in the Simandou iron ore project in eastern Guinea.
See http://www.china-wire.org/2010/08/chinalco-rio-tinto-dig-for-new-era-in-africa/.
(N.B. in this article, Rio Tinto is referred to as an Australian company. It is in fact a dual-listed company, on the London and Australian Stock Exchanges, and is headquartered in London.)
British Government’s Department for International Development helping Rio Tinto
According to LMN member group The Cornerhouse, DfID owns a company called InfraCo, which is assisting Rio Tinto in Guinea.
“In anticipation of future mining activities by Rio Tinto at Simandou, Guinea, InfraCo has engaged in a partnership with Rio Tinto to explore development opportunities for multi-user infrastructure such as electricity supply. The objective of the project under consideration is to electrify the town of Beyla, the nearest town to Rio Tinto’s proposed mine, using local hydropower resources. Beyla is a town of 22,000 inhabitants that is expected to grow significantly once mining activities commence. Beyla’s electricity demand is expected to be approximately 1.4 GWh in 2010 growing to approximately 4 GWh by 2020, should the town be connected to an electricity grid. The project will consist of installing a 1 MW hydro power plant on the Cessou river close to the village of Famoila, connecting the hydro plant to the town of Beyla by a 20 km 20kV transmission line and completing and expanding the existing distribution system in Beyla. The project is planned to be owned through an integrated electric distribution utility “Beyla Energy” with a concession to generate and distribute electricity within the prefecture of Beyla. This project provides an example of possible partnerships with mining companies looking to develop multi-user infrastructure in Africa.”
See http://www.infracoafrica.com/projects-guinea-beylapowerproject.asp.