“In Guinea, French banks and a firm at the service of mining ecocide“ 19 February 2025

The third article of our GreenFakes series takes us to northwestern Guinea... To extract the bauxite, the vegetation has to be razed, and the ground blasted with dynamite. All that remains is a stony, barren desert. The red dust released during mining and transportation infiltrates everything and settles everywhere, polluting the air, water, and vegetation in the surrounding area...The consequences are also dire for the animals that used to live in the area, including the critically endangered West African chimpanzee.

Officially, however, these bauxite mines have no negative impact on biodiversity. That’s what the World Bank and the major French banks that financed them claim. A French consultancy firm, Biotope, has played a major role in this greenwashing operation...

The area between the towns of Boké and Sangaredi is the epicenter of the bauxite boom, following extensions granted in 2016 and 2019 to two giant mining companies. One is the Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG), controlled by the Guinean government with 51% shareholding, and three multinationals, Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Dadco, controlling the rest. The other is the Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC), which is owned by mining giant BHP Billiton (33.3%), Global Alumina (33,3%), DUBAL – the Dubai Aluminium Company (25%), and Mubadala,  a state owned company of the Abu Dhabi government (8.33%).

These two megaprojects were made possible by loans totalling $1.5 billion, including over $300 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank, and several hundred million dollars from private banks, led by France’s BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and Natixis.

In January 2019...Biotope proposed...the creation of a Conservation Trust Fund, financed mainly by companies, to fund the protection of natural areas. However, this fund, meant to be one of the flagship measures of Guinea’s national policy to compensate for the impact of bauxite mining, is still not operational after four years of studies.

The national park, which is supposed to be a sanctuary, is threatened by mining concessions and a dam project that could swallow up a large part of the forest...

Non-compliance with standards is also mentioned in a complaint filed in 2019 with the IFC ombudsman by 540 residents of thirteen Guinean villages. They denounce the destruction of their environment and livelihoods by CBG’s mines. The IFC launched a mediation process, but five years later, it has still not been completed.

The French banks that co-financed the projects are not moved by this situation... BNP Paribas has not replied. Société Générale replied that it has a policy of not providing information on “specific operations”. Natixis claims to carry out “in-depth monitoring” of the environmental compliance of its mines, without indicating the results. The same goes for Crédit Agricole, which claims to receive “regular” reports but refuses to provide them...

When it opens in late 2025, Simandou will be the world’s largest iron ore mine, producing 60 million tons a year. However, NGOs grouped together in the Simandou Aware coalition are critiquing this colossal $20 billion investment. They point to major risks for the environment, the local population, water pollution, and wildlife. The mine is located in a hitherto unspoiled, landlocked area of forest, home to numerous protected species, including critically endangered chimpanzees.

WCS and Rinto Tinto have promised to meet the IFC’s PS6 standard, i.e., to cause no net loss of biodiversity. However, NGOs disagree with the conclusions of their preparatory studies...

In its response to Mediapart, the Guinean Ministry of Mines states that WCS and Rio Tinto had recently submitted plans to compensate for biodiversity losses. Rio Tinto told us, however, that it still needs to carry out additional studies, and that it would be able to unveil the sites selected for compensation at the end of 2025 or early 2026. The mining group adds that it is “fully aligned” with the PS6 standard...