Guinea and EGA settle 18-month bauxite licence dispute

The government of Guinea, Emirates Global Aluminium and its subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation announced on 6 May 2026 that they had reached an amicable settlement ending a dispute that had run for more than 18 months over GAC's bauxite mining licence.

How the dispute unfolded

Guinean authorities suspended GAC's bauxite exports in mid-2024 as part of a broader push to force bauxite operators to commit to building alumina refineries domestically rather than simply exporting raw ore. In July 2025, EGA responded by terminating its base agreement with the Guinean state and recording a full impairment of GAC's value — about 2.5-billion UAE dirhams, or roughly $680m — on its balance sheet. GAC alone charged EGA $765m related to the Guinea project in 2025, contributing to a fall in EGA's net profit to $578m from $715m in 2024.

Terms of the settlement

Under the agreement, Guinea will pay GAC a lump sum in exchange for the transfer of its mining assets to a newly created, state-backed vehicle, Nimba Mining Company. Separately, supply agreements between EGA's other Guinean venture, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée, and EGA were renewed on what the companies described as mutually beneficial commercial terms. "This agreement reflects the decidedly constructive effort to normalise and strengthen trade relations between the parties," EGA said in a statement.

Why it matters

The settlement allows EGA to keep sourcing Guinean bauxite for its Al Taweelah refinery in the UAE through its CBG stake, while Guinea secures state ownership of the Sangarédi-area GAC assets it can now direct toward its own domestic refining ambitions. In the interim, EGA had already diversified its bauxite supply toward Australia, Ghana and Brazil, illustrating how quickly global aluminium producers can shift sourcing when a single African supply relationship comes under strain.

What happens next

Guinea's push for domestic alumina refining continues regardless of the settlement, with several other bauxite miners in the Boké region already committed to building refineries. Whether Nimba Mining Company can operate GAC's assets as productively as EGA once did will be an early test of Guinea's growing preference for state control over its bauxite sector.

Sources

• The National: EGA settles disputes with Guinea over bauxite mine project, 06 May 2026
• Mining Weekly: Republic of Guinea, GAC, EGA reach agreement, 06 May 2026

Photo: A bauxite conveyor belt operated by Guinea Alumina Corporation at Kamsar, Guinea. Aboubacarkhoraa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.