The Chinese Regime’s Growing Economic Footprint in Guinea: Part 2

Mining Rights Traded for Infrastructure

A bauxite plant in Guinea. During the presidency of Guinean president Alpha Conde, China's bauxite imports from Guinea expanded from negligible to more than half. File photo/Georges Gobet/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

In addition to its rich reserves of iron ore, the Republic of Guinea also holds 7.4 billion metric tons (pdf) or one-fourth of the world’s total reserves of bauxite, the main source of aluminum. Data provided by Western Securities show that in 2020, Guinea exported 82 million metric tons of this important mineral, of which 64 percent was sent to China. To say that Guinea is strategically important to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “One Belt, One Road” initiative is an understatement.

China’s Huge Demand for Bauxite

China’s share of global aluminum production rose to 57.2 percent during 2020, a historic high, of which 94 percent is used domestically. The production relies on the coal-fired process of electrolysis to extract aluminum from the bauxite.