UPDATE 2-France-based Miner AMR starts bauxite production in Guinea – by Saliou Samb (Reuters U.S. – December 12, 2017)

https://www.reuters.com/

CONAKRY, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Paris-based miner AMR began production at its Guinean bauxite mine on Tuesday, aiming to produce between 6 million and 10 million tonnes a year of the aluminium ore, the company said.

Alliance Miniere Responsable (AMR) was founded by two French businessmen, and major shareholders include former Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon and French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel.

A company statement said the mine’s output will all be sold to Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB), a Guinean company whose main shareholders are Singapore’s privately owned Winning International Group and China’s Shandong Weiqao.

“It’s all going to China,” CEO and co-founder Romain Girbal told Reuters by telephone. By next year AMR should be producing about 8 million tonnes, but by the following year it should have exceeded the 10 million target, he said.

Guinea has about a third of the world’s bauxite reserves, but annual production has hovered below 20 million tonnes a year for several years, owing largely to political instability.

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