EGA signs 15-yr Guinea bauxite pact

ABU DHABI / WAM

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) signed a 15-year agreement with LD Ports and Logistics on Sunday, a subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, for the trans-shipment of bauxite in the Republic of Guinea.
Also, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Abu Dhabi Ports separately signed an agreement to form a joint venture company to work together to carry out the project. EGA will be loading bauxite at the port of Kamsar in Guinea from both its Guinea Alumina Corporation project, which will supply customers around the world, and from Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée,
for supply to EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi.
Kamsar is located on the River Nunez some 17 kilometres from the open sea and is inaccessible to the world’s largest vessels.
Abdulla Kalban, EGA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said, “EGA has set an ambitious growth agenda to expand upstream internationally. Trans-shipment is an important link in the chain that will connect our alumina refinery and aluminium smelters in the UAE with bauxite mines in Guinea, and will also lower shipping costs from GAC to global bauxite markets.”
Regarding the agreement, Gildas Maire, Chief Executive Officer of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs said, “These agreements with EGAand Abu Dhabi Ports expand our geographic and operational footprint in West Africa. We are pleased to be partnering with these leading UAE companies and to play a part in the development of Guinea’s economy by helping to enable the competitive transport of Guinean bauxite.”
EGA is currently developing the GAC project in Guinea, a bauxite mine and associated export facilities. The first bauxite from the project is expected during the second half of 2019. The GAC project is one of the largest greenfield investments in Guinea in the past 40 years, and will be a new source of bauxite supply.