The Republic of Guinea (Republique de Guinee), a country in Western Africa. Area - 245860 sq.km. Population - 7,806,000: Peuhl, Malinke,
Soussou and other. Urban population - 29,6%. Capital - Conakry (706 000).
Administrative division: 8 regions (Zerekore, Kankan, Faranah, Labe, Mamou, Kindia, Boke, Conakry),
33 prefectures, 38 city communes, 302 rural communes. Population - 7,8 mln people - comprises various nationalities:
Peuhl 40%, Malinke 30%, Soussou 15%. 70% of the population is rural.
Guinea is among the poorest countries in the world. Nevertheless, it has great untapped economic potential, notably in the development of agriculture and mining (especially bauxite, gold and diamonds). The government has made far-reaching free market reforms since abandoning Marxism during the mid-1980s. Although it has strengthened commercial ties with France, Guinea remains outside the regional bloc of other former French colonies (UEMOA).
Guinea is one of the countries possessing considerable mineral resources. Its depths hide sizeable deposits of iron and bauxite ores,
gold and diamonds, as well as smaller layers of limestone, construction sand, shingle, gravel and fire clays.
Also noticed were occurrences of chromites, rare earths, copper, silver, talc, manganese, nickel,
chromites, kaolin, beryllium, platinum,
feldspar and zircon. Oil is possible in the shelf region.
Guinea's legal system reflects its heritage as a French colony, and is based on the French system. Even though it is not a member of UEMOA, Guinea has adopted the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Commercial Law (OHADA) treaty, which is aimed at deepening regional integration between the 16 countries of Francophone Africa.
Gold and diamonds in Mali.
Year 1997 brought a drastic change to Mali gold mining: gold recovery sprang up to 18.5 tons (compare with 6.6 tons in 1996). It was the result of a French company's (SMOS - Societe d'exploitation des mines d'or Sadiola) debut on Sadiola deposit. In 1997 the new mine produced 13 tons of gold at a cost value of 3.3 dollars per gram. 4 mln tons of ore were also reprocessed here. The investment in the enterprise totaled 303 mln dollars.
Gold prospecting in the country dwindled to 2.2 tons in 1997 from 3 tons in 1996.
Titanium and circonium in Senegal.
In the coastal lands between Saint-Louis and Dakar many beach placers are known. They are located in a sector of 100 km length and 10 km width. Black sand reserves in this sector used to be assessed at 10 mln tons of heavy fraction minerals. In the southern sector, between Joal and Nyaning, black sands were totaling circa 2 mln tons with 35% of ilmenite, rutile and zirconium. In the mouth of Casamans river, in the Bukote-Uolof coastal sands ilmenite resources amounted to 375,000 tons.
