Compagnie des bauxites de Guinée (CBG) is a Guinean mining company. Since 1963 it has extracted bauxite from the notable mine in Sangarédi, in Boké Region in Guinea. It is 49% owned by the Guinean State, with the remainder owned by the Boké Investment Company, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Halco Mining, a consortium opened in 1962 by Harvey Aluminum Company to run mining operations in Guinea. Halco's stock is owned by Alcoa (45%), Rio Tinto Alcan (45%) and Dadco Investments (10%).
Guinea is the world's 5th largest producer of bauxite, yet the country holds the world's largest reserves of the valuable ore used to produce aluminum. Estimates of the country's reserves rise as high as 25 billion tons, or the majority of the world's bauxite.
Bauxite mining in Guinea
Guinea possesses a third of the best bauxite reserves in the world, or about 20 billion tons, with a high content (45-62 %) of alumina and a low silica content (0.8-2 %). Despite being ranked second after Australia in terms of production, it was, in 1993, the largest exporter in the world, having benefited from the relocation in the world aluminum industry in the 1970s; After global production tripled between 1950 and 1960, it doubled again in the 70s, which saw a strong consolidation around six companies: (Alcan, Alcoa, Reynolds, Kaiser, Pechiney Ugine Kuhlman and Alusuisse) as well as a strong vertical integration, as a result of which, in 1979 the members of the International Association of Bauxite Producing Countries supplied 75% of the world's bauxite, while only providing 4.5% of the world's Aluminum. High-Value added segments in the global aluminum value-chain (E.g. Alumina refining and smelting) have remained mostly in developed countries, meaning that despite Guinea's large ore deposits, most of the money made from that ore goes to the wealthy nations where industrial plants are located.
History
Early on, the country attracted prospectors. Bauxites du Midi, founded in 1912 in Paris, began mining operations on in 1937, preceded by a prospecting voyage in 1936-1937
On July 24, 1948, 20 mining exploration permits were awarded to the company. They discovered that the bauxite deposits of guinea consisted of surface deposits which are entirely exploitable using mining pits and heavy vehicles. Bauxites du Midi partnered with the Canadian company Aluminum Laboratories, which proffered the necessary funds and materials for the deposit facilities in Guinea, and additionally worked to provide the specialists required to construct an enrichment plant on . In 1948 and 1950 the Guinean bauxite from the Îles de Los was shipped in small quantities to the Aluminum plants of Alcan in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean in Québec, but in November 1966, that deposit was depleted, as was expected, despite nationalization.
Under the leadership of Pierre Jochyms, the planning of the utilization of significant deposits of bauxite (in Kassa, Boké and Fria), Iron ore (on the Kaloum peninsula and the Nimba-Simandou island chain) gold and diamonds was begun. The exceptional hydroelectric potential of the Konkouré watershed had already been identified, and two large dams were being researched (Grandes Chutes and Souapiti)
CBG began its first excavations in January, 1955, then suspended them for one year. Pechiney Ugine began its major project in 1957, on the site of Fria. Studies were done on the hydroelectric project in Konkouré, to the east of Fria, but following a referendum on September 28, 1958, they were kept secret by the colonial authorities.
In November, 1961, the government took possession of the sites of Kassa and Boké due to the failure of Bauxites du Midi (a wholly owned subsidiary of Alcan) to respect its agreement to refine its bauxite into aluminum locally after 1964. In 1962, Guinea joined the World Bank and CBG resumed its excavations on October 1, 1963, under the banner of the Compagnie des bauxites de Guinée, of which 49% ownership was held by the state of Guinea, and 51% by Harvey Aluminium of Delaware.
Bauxite exports began in 1973. The first ship loaded with Guinean bauxite left the port of Kamsar on August 2, 1973, with 19,000 tons of ore on board. In the 1970s, Africa's portion of global bauxite production tripled.
In 1965, the Boké Improvement Office (OFAB) was created to construct and manage CBG's infrastructures.