Guinea has opened contacts with United Arab Emirates' investment fund Mubadala over a possible stake in its CBG bauxite joint venture with Alcoa and Rio Tinto , Mines Minister Mohamed Lamine Fofana said on Friday.
Fofana stressed that Guinea, the world's largest exporter of the raw material of aluminium, had not opened full negotiations at this point.
"The Emiratis told us they have a production project for 10 million tonnes of alumina, for which they need a large quantity of bauxite. That's why they are interested in CBG," he told a news conference in Conakry, adding that Guinea was looking for $300 million for a planned expansion of the CBG mine.
Alumina is used in the production of aluminium and other applications.
The Guinean government has a 49 percent stake in CBG. Fofana declined to say what size of stake could be made available to Mubadala but a ministry source said it could be around 23 percent.
"The plan is to start with a draft that must be studied and approved by the government and if the view is positive we will make contact with the privatisation agency, Fofana said, adding President Alpha Conde would need to pass any deal by decree.
The ministry source said current plans already aimed to raise CBG's output to 16.5 million tonnes of bauxite a year from 13 million, "but with Mubadala, we can go up to 18 million."
CBG's main mine is in the town of Sangaredi in the north-west, some 300 km (200 miles) from Conakry.
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