Alufer Mining

Responsible Mining at Work

The US$205 million Alufer Bauxite Mining Project in Guinea-Conakry, one of the largest foreign investments in the country, has declared over 3 billion tonnes of bauxite ore reserves. Since inception, Alufer has operated a robust environmental and social management system (ESMS), geared at the proactive identification and mitigation of environmental, social, health, safety and security risks of its operations. Since construction of its Bel Air project began in early 2017 in the Boffa Region of Western Guinea, Alufer has actively implemented its ESMS, with extremely positive results.

What Makes Alufer’s ESMS Successful?

Early Risk Assessment and Mitigation Planning – AFC has worked with its investment and equity partners to ensure the embedding of proactive E&S risk management in Alufer’s operations. Several pre-transaction E&S risk assessment studies were conducted for the project, to properly identify risks and develop effective mitigation plans.

Commitment to E&S Risk management – Alufer’s Bel Air project works to implement a detailed Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) and a Public Commitments Register, with specific, measurable and time-bound actions to be taken to mitigate E&S risks during all phases of the Project.

A Stellar Team – Alufer has a highly skilled E&S risk management team, based on the project site in Guinea-Conakry. The team is made up of local and international experts skilled in safety, environment, health, security and community risk management.

Concerted Biodiversity Management Efforts – Alufer has benefited from the early pre-transaction E&S risk assessments conducted for the Bel Air project. The project is currently implementing a biodiversity management program, including biodiversity action planning and primate and turtle monitoring. The Bel Air project also implements a community-focused seed/cutting collection and cultivation rehabilitation program, to support plant colonies needed by primate species in the surrounding forests.

Environmental Monitoring – The Bel Air project runs a rigorous air quality, water and dust monitoring program throughout all project phases of the mine.

Tireless Local Employment – Alufer operates a local recruitment process aimed at maximizing recruitment of candidates originating from villages in the project impact zone. A majority of Bel Air’s total workforce are Guinean Nationals, with over 50% of workers being from local communities.

Proactive Community Engagement & Responsible Citizenship –Alufer has been engaged in several voluntary development projects in its surrounding communities. These include a local food cropping project with a local cooperative, involving the development of chilli, eggplant and cassava nursery crop,, construction of structures/facilities, including school classrooms and a TV block; and health and safety awareness for local communities