By Emmanuel Tumanjong

Special to Dow Jones Newswires

The governing junta in Guinea said Thursday that the Simandou iron ore project, located in the southeast, will start in March this year.

The project, with its iron ore reserves of more than 4 billion tons, will be restarting after Guinean authorities halted it in mid-2022.

Mining major Rio Tinto PLC, the Simandou Winning Consortium and steel giant Baowu Steel will handle the project by building a mineral railway and port infrastructure in March.

Investors are now concluding negotiations on the $15 billion project, which had been stalled until the arrival of Baowu Steel. The project will be divided into four blocks: two controlled by the Winning Simandou Consortium and Baowu; two others controlled by Australia's Rio Tinto, which is allied to China's Chinalco.

To realize the project, the transitional government of Guinea secured the creation of a joint venture in mid-2022, keeping a 15% stake, but discussions on the distribution of profits and investments have long stalled.

Write to Barcelona Editors at barcelonaeditors@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 03, 2023 12:11 ET (17:11 GMT)

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