Guinea could produce 10 million tonnes of alumina a year within a decade, more than 10 times its current output, as investors flock to the West African nation, an industry executive said.

Brian Herlihy, vice-president for development at Global Alumina, said in a Reuters report the Toronto-listed company expects to produce the first alumina from its own $2.8 billion refinery development in northern Guinea by the first half of 2009.
It could then expand capacity at the Boke plant to 4.5 million tonnes by adding a third train. Construction on the project began in 2005 and work on the refinery site starts this month, although Global has yet to finalise the financing.
“Global Alumina has the aim of building a second and a third refinery and our belief is that all that will be in Guinea,” Herlihy said in an interview.
With the world’s largest aluminium producers Alcoa and Alcan also planning a refinery through their Halco joint venture in Guinea, the country’s alumina output is set to rise sharply from around 700,000 tonnes per year (tpy) at present.
Guinea contains almost a third of the world’s reserves of bauxite — which is refined into alumina and then smelted into aluminium. Until now it has exported almost all its bauxite production of up to 15 million tonnes due to lack of refineries.
“In the next 10 to 15 years, I believe there will be 10 million tpy of alumina exports from Guinea,” Herlihy said, adding this would not reduce bauxite exports.
“Around eight companies are looking at concessions in Guinea at the moment,” he said. “Guinea is going to play an important strategic role in the alumina industry.”
Global Alumina, created solely for this project, aims to finance it with $1 billion in equity and $1.8 billion in debt.
Global, 25 percent owned by Dubai Aluminium, has already raised $440 million of equity, and is in talks with around five industry investors with the aim of raising the rest of the equity tranche by the end of the summer.
The company is also in advanced negotiations with a consortium of lenders — including export-lending agencies from France, China and South Africa — with the aim of wrapping up the debt issue by November.
Anticipating an alumina boom in Guinea, Global is building a massive terminal at Kampsar port with the capacity to export 10 million tonnes a year, which could serve other new refineries.
Global Alumina will supply its Boke refinery with bauxite from its own concessions, although it would contract a mining company to produce the ore, Herlihy said.