Mining industry of Guinea

[12] In 2008, former model, Tigui Camara bought a 28% share in a mining company, and began her career in the sector.

[1] Despite holding large mineral resources, Guinea, with more than 12,000,000 people, has a low income level, with the average wage less than one dollar a day.

[17] Minerals extracted in the country by private-public joint enterprises in collaboration with the Government of Guinea include bauxite, iron ore, and diamonds.

Other resources mined are cement, gold, salt, graphite, limestone, manganese, nickel, and uranium.

[26] A large number of gold mines are located in northeastern Guinea; the estimated production in 2011 was 15,695 kilograms.

[28] In 2008, the government revoked the Rio Tinto licence for the Simandou mine, awarding it instead to BSGR, a company associated with Beny Steinmetz.

[32][29] In February 2019, President Condé and BSGR reached an agreement to withdraw the mutual allegations of corruption.

[34] In May 2020, BSGR filed discovery request documents at the court in New York based on transcripts of conversations with former Vale executives that were obtained by the Black Cube private intelligence company.

[35] BSGR claims that the documents prove that Vale was aware of potential problems with how the rights to develop Simandou had been obtained, but chose to ignore them and proceeded to buy 51% of the iron-ore licenses.

[36] There have been further corruption allegations levelled at President Condé's government involving bribery from the U.S. hedge fund Och-Ziff.

[37] In August 2016, Samuel Mebiame, who worked for the company, was arrested and charged in the U.S. with bribing Guinean and other African officials on behalf of Och Ziff to receive mining rights and access to secret information.

Mebiame pleaded guilty to conspiring to make corrupt payments to African members of government in December 2016.

[39] In 2018, Michael Cohen, head of Och-Ziff European operations, was charged with ten counts of fraud.

[44] Another case of alleged corruption in the country's mining industry is based on the findings of an NGO called Global Witness.