Simandou Iron Ore Project

The Simandou project is an iron ore mining project in the Simandou Mountains of the Republic of Guinea. The project will have negative impacts on Critically Endangered western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). There are 4 mining concession blocks within the Simandou mountains and blocks 3 and 4 are owned by Rio Tinto Simfer which is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (majority shareholder and managing partner), Chalco Iron Ore Holdings (CIOH), and the Government of Guinea. The project is expecting its first production in 2025. The IUCN Section on Great Apes (SGA) was contacted by Rio Tinto in 2016, before the ARRC Task Force was formalized, to seek out independent advice on how to tackle the project’s impacts on chimpanzees. The project then underwent a ‘care and maintenance’ phase for several years during which there was no further contact by the project with the SGA. In 2021, the project contacted the ARRC Task Force, but we declined to engage given their partnership with Winning Consortium Simandou for the railway (see Trans-Guinean Railway project page). The ARRC Task Force is currently assessing if a potential re-engagement is possible.