With its rich mining potential still largely unexploited, Guinea holds a third of the world’s bauxite reserves. To develop its production, the Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC), a Guinean subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), has entrusted the Colas group with the construction of infrastructure for extraction from the Tinguilinta bauxite mine. For this purpose, Colas Africa and Colas Projects took part in building a storage platform, five bridges, one of which is 200 m long over an arm of the sea, and access roads to the mining site.

More than 300 machines – bulldozers, compactors, graders, crushing equipment and hydraulic shovels – were used on the site. For this project, 1200 people worked on the site, 80% of whom were Guineans hired locally and trained by Colas executives from Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, North Africa and France. Apart from Colas Africa and Colas Projects, several group subsidiaries took part in this project, notably SPAC and, of course, Colas Rail.

The Guinea Alumina Corporation entrusted Colas Rail with the design, provision, construction and commissioning of an 18 km railway: 10 km at the Kamsar port site and 8 km at Tinguilinta. This is equivalent to 75,000 tonnes of ballast and 14,500 tonnes of miscellaneous equipment that was transported to the site. The concrete sleepers were shipped from Portugal, the 22 points came from South Africa, and France supplied 1800 tonnes of rails.

This major mining project started in October 2016 and was completed in April 2019.

Using the infrastructure that was built, trains 1500 metres long with 120 wagons can transport 12 million tonnes of bauxite per year for GAC. This large-scale project was a real human and technical challenge that we are proud to have met. It was also a great opportunity for Colas Rail Morocco to show its expert know-how, particularly through the excellent work of its welders and crews.