What Do Guineans Gain From the Country's Vast Bauxite Wealth?

Guinea possesses the world's largest bauxite reserves — the key raw material for aluminum production — yet villagers like those in Bembou Silaty are mired in deprivation. The contradiction is palpable even among local workers.

Mamadou Aliou, 38, works in environmental health and safety for a bauxite mining company in northwestern Guinea. He is also a social activist who frequently criticizes other mining firms in the region. “Before these companies arrived, we farmed the land, and the land sustained us. We could meet our daily needs, especially food. But now, once a plot of land is registered as belonging to a mining company, you have nothing left on it,” Aliou said.

Over the past three decades, Guinea has increased its bauxite output tenfold. More than a dozen bauxite mining projects are now active in the country. Roughly 75% of Guinea's bauxite exports over the last decade have gone to China — the world's largest aluminum producer, accounting for 60% of global output. Companies from Russia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates also operate here. In Bembou Silaty, an Indian firm began mining in 2019 and holds extraction rights until 2034.

Local residents complain of losses: polluted water, shrinking farmland, and declining crop yields. Every hectare of land seized by a mining company is a hectare lost to agriculture, even as Guinea spent over $500 million in 2024 to import rice. “They compensate you for the land, but it's not enough. Within a month or two, someone receiving 50–100 million Guinean francs (about $5,700–$11,400) has nothing left. No land, no money. They have to start from zero,” Aliou said.

Fatoumata Binta Bah, 20, comes from a farming family that once grew cashews. The Indian mining company paid her family less than 50 million Guinean francs (approximately $5,700) for their plot. That money is gone, and the new house remains unfinished. “The land they took was productive land — it was our livelihood. In the end, it wasn't enough,” Bah said.

Clean water is the greatest challenge. The village of Bembou Silaty, home to about 5,000 people, has one new water point built since the mining company arrived, but the water is contaminated with iron. In the neighboring village of Koussadji Dow, residents must use brown, polluted river water. “Since the mining companies arrived, we've had water problems. Children get sick, parents too. Doctors tell us not to drink rainwater or river water. There are no roads, no schools, no phone signal. We need help to have a decent life,” said Mariama Kindi Diallo, a farmer.

Guinea's Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Djami Diallo, acknowledged that each year some companies are denied compliance certificates for failing to meet environmental standards, but “the fact that companies do not meet the conditions for certification does not mean everything stops.”

Guinea is attempting to restructure its mining sector under the government of Mamady Doumbouya, who came to power after the 2021 coup. The government is pressuring investors to process bauxite domestically to capture more value-added benefits. Processing bauxite into aluminum can multiply its value 37 times. However, this requires enormous amounts of electricity — something currently unavailable in villages like Bembou Silaty and even in short supply in the capital, Conakry.

On the other side of the global supply chain, Spain is a destination for Guinean bauxite. More than 90% of Spain's imported bauxite comes from Guinea. Since 2000, the number of Guineans in Spain has quadrupled, from 2,700 to 11,000. According to Frontex, more Guineans arrived in the Canary Islands in 2023 (2,324 people) than in the previous 13 years combined. In 2024 and 2025, another 6,000 Guineans arrived.

“If you compare the bauxite we export with what we get back, the gap is huge. We barely make any profit. Just enough to survive,” Aliou said.