The Guinean authorities have not yet granted the green light for the Simandou iron ore project planned by the Australian mining giant Rio Tinto and China's largest metal producer Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd (Chinalco), media reports have said.
Accordingly, the Minister of Mines and Geology of Guinea, Mahmoud Thiam, has stated that, if the two parties fail to submit relevant files as requested by the Guinean government, the project would be aborted.
At the end of July, Chinalco agreed to pay $1.35 billion for a stake in Rio Tinto Group's Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, the world's largest virgin iron ore mine.