Guinea Reaps Bauxite Boom With 100MT Exports in 1H25

During first half of 2025, Guinea has exported nearly 100 million tonnes of bauxite, which is close to amount that it exported for the whole of the year in 2024 With that jump in figures, Guinea now sits firmly at the top of the league of bauxite producers in the world, commanding over 50% of the world’s exports, ahead of Australia and Indonesia.

The surge in export in 1H25 can be traced back to China which bought nearly 70% of the bauxite production of Guinea. And, most of the bauxite exported to China originated from the SMB-Winning Consortium, which is a JV between Chinese and Singaporean firms, with some local government ownership.

Originally, China relied mostly on bauxite from Indonesia. To promote local beneficiation, or so-called downstreaming, Indonesia introduced a ban on bauxite exports in June 2023, causing China to shift to Guinea.

However, not is all rosy in the bauxite industry in Guinea. As a matter of fact, the Government of Guinea has repeatedly pressed Guinea Alumina Corporation to make good on its promise to build an alumina refinery. The move is in line with other mining jurisdictions which are all encouraging more local value addition (#LVA) in order to bring more benefits locally.

The demand for bauxite is expected to remain sustained as the end-product aluminum goes into a number of fast-growing industries such as electric vehicles (#EV), renewable energy, and aerospace. Therefore, the huge growing markets of China and India are both stockpiling bauxite, while pursuing a diversification of their sources.

To meet the increase in demand, Guinea is planning to upgrade its logistic infrastructure, including rail, road, and seaports. Specifically, there are plans to expand bulk handing capacity at the seaports of Dapilon and Kamsar. The connectivity infrastructure is to be financed from a consortium of mining companies who would also be the main users.