Having bypassed conventional international lenders such as the IMF for various reasons, the African nation demonstrated that when it comes to commodity-rich African nations, the (financial) world is unipolar, and the pole goes right through Beijing.
According to Reuters, the projects guaranteed by the loan included China Power Investment Corp's (CPI) planned alumina refinery and Aluminium Corp of China's (Chalco) bauxite mine and another bauxite project by China Henan International Cooperation Group, all of them in the northwestern town of Boffa.According to the Mines minister, proceeds from the Chinese loan would be spent on badly needed infrastructure - Guinea is one of the world's least developed countries - including roads in the capital Guinea and highways upcountry, a project for extending the port of Conakry, an electric transmission line and the building of a university, Magassouba said. The Chinese loan represent a "roads-for-minerals" formula that China often uses to gain access to Africa's resources.
"Those are the three projects targeted as priorities for the first phase," Mines Minister Abdoulaye Magassouba told Reuters. "The revenues these projects generate will serve as reimbursement for the loans."
Chalco said last month it plans to invest $500 million in the project in Boffa, about 200 kilometers from the capital Conakry, which was abandoned by BHP Billiton in 2013. Meanwhile, China's interest in the Guinean aluminum goes back at least to 2012 when CPI first unveiled the $6 billion CPI alumina project.
Guinea, Africa's leading bauxite producer, holds some of the world's richest bauxite and iron ore deposits, including the Simandou iron ore deposit, in its remote east, which is mired in legal disputes but has nevertheless attracted intense interest from China. China, which has been one of the world's largest users of aluminum, has been eager to secure long-term access to aluminum's key ore.





It demonstrates what mature leadership in a country can achieve with diplomacy, dialogue and cooperation.