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Guinea's neighbours' resources. Guinea-Bissau |
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On the territory of Guinea-Bissau various minerals are deposited: bauxites and construction materials, seaboard placers of black sands with ilmenite, rutile, zirconium, occurrences of iron, phosphotites, brown coal and oil. Bauxites are one of the real ore bases.
Bauxite deposits of lateritic residua are located in the south-east of the country, near the border with Guinea. 103 kilometers separate them from the port of Bouba.
Total bauxite deposits of the country's sole ore region BOE count 109 mln tons, including 76.9 mln tons of C1+C2 categories' bauxite.
Bauxite-bearing region BOE is composed of terrigenous rocks - argillites, siltstones and sandstones of Silurian and Devonian ages, broken by sills and dikes of Mesozoic dolerites. Lateritic formations up to 30 meters thick are positioned everywhere; in their upper parts bauxite-bearing residua are deposited.
The relief is a slightly dissected, flat-topped upland, sometimes plateau-like. It forms an interstream area between the Koroubal river on the north and the Koton river on the south. The downcuttings of the river valleys come to dozens of meters.
The region was once a zone of military actions; mines are possible.
First information about BOE bauxites appeared in 1950s. Later Dutch specialists came to a conclusion that the place hides bauxite-bearing nappes. After drillings that took place in the area of 100 by 100 meters, bauxite reserves of this region were assessed. They reached around 109 mln tons with average alumina and silica content of 46.5% and 3.5% respectively.
Guinea-Bissau Business Intelligence Report
by USA International Business Publications
This report contains business intelligence information for succesful export-import, business and investment operations, strategic contacts and more... The report also contains selected information on investment and business opportunities, international economic projects, tenders, government projects, as well as, marketing and export-import opportunities information.
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In 1977 and 1980 Soviet geologists finished the research and prospects of these bauxite deposits.
Main deposits of BOE region are: Cain, Eva, Adam, Felou-Kanyazhe, Vendor-Lady, Rachel-Rebecca and Jacob. Cain, Vendor-Lady, Eva, Rachel-Rebecca and Felou-Kanyazhe are the best-explored ones. The parameters of BOE's bauxite deposits are given in the table below:
1. Eva: |
C1 |
954,8 |
5,6 |
11,3 |
46,6 |
2,3 |
24,2 |
2,7 |
23,6 |
C2 |
979,6 |
3,8 |
7,9 |
45,5 |
2,4 |
25,9 |
2,5 |
23,4 |
C1+C2 |
1934,4 |
4,7 |
19,2 |
46,2 |
2,3 |
24,9 |
2,6 |
23,5 |
2. Cain, C2 |
1557,2 |
4,9 |
16,1 |
46,4 |
1,8 |
24,5 |
2,9 |
23,9 |
3. Rachel-Rebecca, C2 |
1669,0 |
4,5 |
16,8 |
46,4 |
5,4 |
21,9 |
2,0 |
23,9 |
4. Vendor-Lady: |
C1 |
693,3 |
5,2 |
8,0 |
47,2 |
4,26 |
21,2 |
2,01 |
24,9 |
C2 |
1098,3 |
4,3 |
10,5 |
46,9 |
4,9 |
21,64 |
2,1 |
24,3 |
C1+C2 |
1791,6 |
4,7 |
18,5 |
47,1 |
4,6 |
21,4 |
2,1 |
24,5 |
5. Felou-Kanyazhe, C2 |
652,2 |
4,3 |
6,22 |
44,2 |
6,0 |
25,0 |
1,8 |
22,1 |
TOTAL in BOE region: |
C1 |
1548,1 |
5,5 |
19,3 |
46,9 |
3,1 |
23,0 |
2,4 |
24,0 |
C2 |
5986,3 |
4,4 |
57,6 |
46,2 |
4,0 |
23,5 |
2,3 |
23,7 |
C1+C2 |
7634,4 |
4,7 |
76,9 |
46,3 |
3,7 |
23,3 |
2,4 |
24,0 |
Ore resources in these deposits have isometric shape that repeats the contour of the interstream areas. Thickness of bauxite horizons - from 2 to 10 meters; 5 meters is the average. The overburden hardly exists at all. The ores are of medium and premium quality and characterized by new chemical composition that betters from base to roof. On the wings bauxite formations give way to allites, low-modulus bauxites and alumina-ferrous rocks. Rock-forming minerals are: gibbsite (69-70%), alumo-goethite, hematite, boehmite, kaolinite, quartz, rutile.
According to "VAMI" institute of Leningrad, bauxites are suitable for reprocessing into alumina via Bayer procedure.
In early 1970s, a company called "BILLYTON" conducted a technical and economic assessment of the prospected deposits. They planned to construct an alumina plant, producing capacity of 1 mln tons of alumina in a year, with the plant's raw material procurement for 25 years to go. Full investments were assessed at 460 mln dollars. The mine and plant construction expenditures would come to 35.5% of this sum, while the infrastructure expenses would claim 17%, including 7% spent on the railroad and 4.4% spent on modernizing Bouba port. The recoupment of expenses, according to this plan, would have taken 19 years, provided that alumina price will stay at the $70 per ton mark. "BILLYTON" came to a conclusion that developing BOE bauxite region is inexpedient. In 1982-1983, Leningrad institute "GIPRONICKEL" arrived at the same verdict. In 1984, at the request of their Guinean partners, the institute carried out a most thorough calculation resulting in the construction expenditures decrease. In general, the problem wasn't solved, although with new calculations bauxite income grew to reach 158 mln dollar mark.
We believe that, taking into account the present-day alumina price, which comes to $420-440 per ton, construction of alumina plant could once and for all solve the BOE bauxite question in a positive way. At the same time, Guinean side has more than once expressed its wish that geologic prospects be continued, so that the bauxite reserves would grow in BOE region. These hopes are well-grounded: Soviet geologists discovered re-deposited bauxites of high quality in the interfluvial area between the Korubal and Gefine rivers, in the western wing of BOE region. Alumina content made 62.83 to 77.23%.
In this mineral resource survey we didn't mention one of the Guinean neighbors - Cote D'Ivoire -because the political and military situation in the country is now so strained that mining there would appear quite pointless - for security reasons.
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