History
Great promise, good planning
Historical Background: Halco, CBG and Guinea
When Guinea proclaimed its independence from France on October 2, 1958, the existence of bauxite reserves in the Boke Region was already well known. Geologists had been doing sporadic test drillings in the area since the 1920s. One foreign firm had even begun a railroad to the Sangaredi plateau. But logistic and economic difficulties caused that project to be suspended.
Getting the job done -- and done right -- became an economic priority for the new Republic. The Guineans had a number of requirements in mind. They knew they would need experienced partners to develop the mine and provide capital, know-how, and access to markets. At the same time, the Republic wanted to keep ownership of, and responsibility for, the infrastructure of the project -- railways, harbor, roads, utilities, and other basic support facilities -- as these were vital to the broader development of the Boke Region over the long run. The Guineans wanted also to have a direct equity interest in the mining and processing operation itself.
In other words, Guinea was looking for a truly cooperative venture, rather than simply granting concessions in return for tax payments. The task was then to find suitable
partners.
Building an international team
The Guineans talked with virtually every major aluminum corporation in the world. Negotiations went on for several years in North America, in Europe, and in Africa.
Finally a group of partners was put together in the form of a consortium called Halco (Mining), Inc. Halco is a private firm owned today by Alcoa, Alcan and DADCO. Halco in turn is joined with the Government of Guinea to form Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee (CBG), an operating company owned 49 percent by Guinea and 51 percent by Halco.
CBG was incorporated in 1963. In 1965, the Guineans formed Office d ‘menagement de Bake (OFAB), a public body to own and operate the infrastructure for the Boke Project. (This has since become ANAIM.) From this point OFAB, the government agency, and CBG, the joint state/private corporation, would work shoulder to shoulder.
Funding the project meant bringing financial institutions into the picture. In addition to investments from the Halco partners, financing came from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Export-Import Bank of the USA, Deutsche Bank, Energoprojekt, Societe Financiere Europeenne, Bank of America, World Banking Corporation, Societe Generale de Banque, Credit Lyonnais, Caisse Centrale de Cooperation Economique, and Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau. An international project team had been assembled. The know-how and financial means were in hand. Now it was time for the real work to begin.
Shaping a new reality
Detailed engineering studies for the Boke Project were begun in 1966. They confirmed the job ahead to be enormous. The geography of the coastal area presented another problem. A seaport was needed here, along with a very large processing plant and a city and facilities for thousands of workers. Building all of this in a remote region would be a major feat of logistics even if there were solid land to build it on -- which there wasn't. On the coast in the Boke Region it is often hard to tell where the sea ends and the land begins. The two elements mingle in marshes and deltas that are excellent for rice-growing or fishing, but less than ideal for heavy construction. The
most feasible site was at Kamsar, on the estuary of the Rio Nunez. Most of the site was a mangrove marsh.
To handle the job, CBG called in engineering and construction firms from every cormer of the earth. More than 100 separate contracts were written. In 1969, the construction team began to congregate at Kamsar in tents and trailers: Europeans and Americans, Asians and Africans, men and machines. The team included top engineers from the Halco partners and some 3,500 Guineans chosen from the best of the Republic’s work force. They dredged soil from the river-bottom to deepen the harbor and used the same soil to fill the marshes, creating dry land. Deep piles were driven, and steel girders erected on the piles, and a factory took shape. Houses, a hospital, schools and other buildings went up. Paved streets were laid down. Meanwhile the long arm of a railway began to stretch inland, reaching for Sangaredi. The crews on the work train hauled their materials behind them and laid track in front of them as they pushed ahead. They cut their way into the hills and crossed rivers. By the time the railway got to Sangaredi it included sixteen bridges. Mining facilities, offices, and another new town were built at Sangaredi, where nothing man-made had existed before.
When all was done, more than 4,000 men had brought 350,000 tons of materials and supplies ashore into one of the least-developed areas of Guinea. In just four years they had produced two towns, a processing plant, a deep-water harbor, the first railroad in the region -- and the world's largest bauxite mine.
On July 26, 1973, the ship Coronia steamed into Kamsar harbor to receive CBG's first shipment. Bauxite for the Coronia was hauled to Kamsar by American-built locomotives over Guinean-owned rails, unloaded and processed by British, French, and Italian machinery, and put aboard by a German mechanical shiploader.
The picture today
Although the people who operate CBG today are a diverse group, the staff is largely Guinean. CBG and ANAIM together now have some 2,600 employees, more than 98 percent of whom are Guinean nationals. Guineans supervise the mine at Sangaredi, direct
the processing plant at Kamsar, and hold many high production, administrative, and financial posts both at Kamsar and Sangaredi.
Top management of CBG reflects the unique mixed nature of the company. Half of the Board of Directors is elected by the Guinean government; the other half by the Halco partners. The Chairman of the Board is named by Guinea; the President by Halco. The Vice President is from Guinea; the Treasurer from Halco.
But the most important fact about this unusual corporation is that it works -- and works well -- as a business firm. CBG's production record is excellent. The company has never missed a shipment, and always has met standards for quality and quantity.
And today - the company is paused for its next big change as it starts to plan how it can supply bauxite to the two refinery projects currently being designed for Guinea: the Alcoa/Alcan plant on the coast, and the Global refinery near Sangaredi.
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Boke Project: the beginning
View construction scenes from 1971, when CBG carved a port, a city, a railroad and a bauxite mine out of the Sangaredi plateau.
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