FACTBOX-Guinea's major mining operations

Source: Reuters Dec 28 (Reuters) - Guinea has vast mineral resources which have attracted international mining firms, and the West African country is the world's No. 1 supplier of aluminium ore bauxite. Here are details of some of the major mining operations and planned developments. (For a related story please click on [ID:nLDE5BQ09V]) BAUXITE: -- Guinea boasts around a third of all known reserves of bauxite, the ore used to make aluminium, but political chaos and weak global demand have taken a toll on output this year. [ID:LDE5BQ09V] -- Production was pegged just over 10.4 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2009, down more than a fifth from the same period a year ago. -- Output totalled 19.78 million tonnes in 2008 out of a capacity of 21.6 million tonnes. -- CBG (Alcoa and Rio Tinto's Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee), the world's biggest bauxite exporter, shipped nearly 8.3 million tonnes during the first nine months of 2009, compared to a record 13.7 million tonnes during the whole of 2008. -- CBG accounts for some 80 percent of Guinea's mining income, which was worth $149 million in 2007. -- Aside from CBG, producers include Alumina Company of Guinea/Fria-Kimbo Mine and Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia. ALUMINA -- RUSAL's Friguia plant refines bauxite to alumina, with total 2008 production estimated at 527,000 tonnes of alumina. -- Alcoa and Rio Tinto are considering adding an alumina refinery to their Guinea bauxite joint venture. -- Toronto-listed Global Alumina is building a new 3.3 million T/yr alumina refinery, but has delayed start-up by two years to 2011 and raised its cost forecast 35 percent to $4.3 billion. IRON ORE: -- Last December, amid falling demand for metals and a company-wide programme of spending cuts, Rio Tinto postponed development of the Simandou iron ore concession. The firm says it is the world's biggest undeveloped iron ore deposit, with an estimated 2.25 billion tonnes of ore. The project, forecast to cost $6 billion, was scheduled to produce 70 million tonnes of ore in 2013, its first projected operational year, with the capacity to increase production later. -- Rio and the government of then-President Lansana Conte had been in dispute for months about the project. At one point the government said it was cancelling a licence for Simandou, but Rio said it would "move forward" with the project. -- In December, BSG Resources, a company belonging to Israeli diamond trader Beny Steinmetz, said it had obtained the rights to the northern portion of Simando. Camara's administration has upheld the handing of the portion of Simandou to BSG Resources, a decision Rio challenges. GOLD: -- Production hit 359,610 ounces in the first nine months of 2009, down 26.4 percent from the same period last year. -- Anglogold Ashanti operates Guinea's biggest gold mine at Siguiri, where it produced 332,000 ounces of gold in 2008. The Guinean state holds a 15 percent stake. -- Anglogold was one the three firms the government said in September would be audited. -- Crew Gold operates the LEFA Corridor Gold Project, which produced 189,520 ounces in 2008. -- West Africa-focused gold miner Semafo, which is listed in Toronto, operates the Kiniero mine in eastern Guinea. It produced 51,700 ounces in 2008. -- Artisanal gold mining is also common in Guinea. DIAMONDS: - Diamond production hit 476,700 carats in the first nine months of 2009, up 30.5 percent from the same period a year ago on the back of strong Chinese demand. -- Guinea's diamond reserves are estimated at over 25 million carats, not including as yet unmapped kimberlite fields. -- Guinea's mines minister recommended in July 2008 that the government cancel the diamond mining licence of the biggest diamond operator in the country, Ardor, due to lack of activity. -- Ardor, 85 percent owned by Toronto-listed Azure Resources Corp and 15 percent by Guinea's government, previously produced between 12,000 and 38,000 carats a year, mines ministry officials said. NICKEL: -- Australian-listed firm Lindian Resources is exploring for nickel at the Dinguiraye project, around 400 km northeast of Conakry. Sources: Reuters news, company websites & Reuters Metal Production Database, available to 3000Xtra users at http://bond.views.session.rservices.com/MPD/Default.aspx ((For main story click [ID:nLA621059]. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Reporting by Daniel Magnowski and David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; editing by William Hardy))