"Guinea: Ensure Respect for Rights in Massive Iron Ore Project" 7 December 2022

Guinea’s massive Simandou iron ore mine project poses severe risks for communities’ land, water, and environment, Human Rights Watch said today. The mining companies developing Simandou have promised to respect strong human rights and environmental standards, but their track record in Guinea means that the project deserves the closest possible scrutiny.

Simandou, reportedly the world’s biggest untapped high-grade iron ore deposit, is being developed by consortia led by Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining corporation, and Winning International Group, a Singapore-based company with roots in China. Rio Tinto and Winning say that the project will generate “a sustainable source of wealth for the people of Guinea for generations to come,” with mining in 2018 providing a third of Guinea’s state budget. But the Simandou project also threatens surrounding communities’ access to land and water, and will release large quantities of carbon emissions.

“Simandou is unprecedented for Guinea not only in its size and complexity, but the threats it poses to the rights and environment of local communities,” said Jim Wormington, senior corporate accountability researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “Inadequate oversight of the project could result in a human rights and environmental disaster.” [...]

Extracting iron ore from Simandou, however, means tearing up forest and uprooting communities. The project’s planned railway, needed to transport ore for export, will run 600 kilometers across Guinea. Rio Tinto and Winning say this will create a “strategic corridor” with regional economic benefits beyond mining. But a 2021 environmental and social impact assessment commissioned by the Winning consortium states that building the railway will raze more than 100 square kilometers of land and destroy vital habitat for endangered species, such as the West African chimpanzee.

On the mountain itself, a 2022 environmental and social impact assessment commissioned by Winning for its portion of Simandou anticipates that mining pits will span almost 20 kilometers across the mountain ridge. The assessment found that, at Winning’s sites alone, mining-related deforestation could release up to 271,300 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to burning 300 million pounds of coal, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate calculated with a tool developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). [...]

The Rio Tinto and Winning consortia, in a September 23, 2022 joint letter to Human Rights Watch, stated that they were committed to developing Simandou in accordance with international environmental and social performance standards and to implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. [...]