Five years of legal proceedings later, Guinea changes strategy and chooses negotiation. Following an amicable settlement reached on February 25, 2019 with BSR Resources of the controversial Israeli businessman, Benny Steinmetz, through the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, as a facilitator, Guinea recovers the Blocks 1 and 2 of Simandou. Conakry is back to square one with a mining deposit listed among the largest in the world and an estimated development of 20 billion dollars.
Officially, this agreement is a victory for Alpha Condé: “The President of the Republic has shown extraordinary courage,” enthused Abdoulaye Magassouba, Minister of Mines and Geology in the show ” Les Grandes Gueules ”, from Espace Fm radio. “The President of the Republic has engaged this fight at the very risk of his power,” said the minister after a deal whose terms are scrupulously kept secret.
Omitting the legal fees and procedural costs incurred for five years and the shortfall caused by this long battle, the minister said that the return of the two blocks in the state wallet was done without Guinea do not spend any francs. In exchange for his hands up on both blocks, BSGR recovers the Zogota mine (with an evacuation plan by Liberia) easier to value. “The Guinean government has agreed that BSGR will offer an investor whose Guinean government will verify the capacity before accepting it. And, that’s what was done. There will be an investor for the development of this mine, “said the minister, who hastens to add:” The only secret that there could be should be with President Alpha Condé. And I’m not in that secret. ”
It remains to be seen how the two parties will find a solution to the complaint of the victims of Zogota against BSGR and the Brazilian company VALE, before the court of justice of the ECOWAS. “The people of Zogota will tell you that their priority wish is that this mine is developed,” replies the minister who says he can not “comment on a judicial procedure”.
One thing is sure, the Guinean State has well brought back into its portfolio half of the largest undeveloped iron ore deposit in the world. After adopting a new mining code in 2011, code amended in 2013, Guinea is planning ahead by ending a procedure that is ultimately costly.
Beny Steinmetz obtained block 1 and 2 from Simandou in 2006 in complicity with the wife of former president Lansana Conte, Mamady Toure.
