Société minière de Boké or SMB is one of the main business enterprises in

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

. It deals mainly in

Bauxite mining Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

in the region of

Boké Boké is the capital city of Boké Prefecture within the Boké Region of Lower Guinea near the border with Guinea-Bissau. It is also a sub-prefecture of Guinea. Located along the Rio Nuñez which flows to its not-too-distant mouth on the Atl ...

, alongside CBG exporting from the ports of Dapilon and Katougouma on the Rio Nunez.

Production

SMB produced more than 36 million tons of Bauxite in 2018, and production has since risen to 48 million tons in 2023. According to reports, SMB is Guinea's biggest bauxite producer, and together with the partially state-owned Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée, the two companies are responsible for moving Guinea into a 22 percent share of the global bauxite market.

SMB Winning Consortium

The company, partnered with other companies along the Aluminum-production value chain to construct industrial infrastructure in Guinea. The company joined with Winning Alliance Africa Port Ltd. (the local subsidiary of the Singaporean Winning International Group, the largest shipping company in Asia), United Mining Supply Group (a french-funded transport and logistics company), Shandong Weiqiao (A subsidiary of China Hongqiao Group, the second largest aluminum producer in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, and the Guinean state (A 10% shareholder in the company), to construct 135 kilometers of railway in a corridor stretching from Boffa Prefecture to

Prefecture to connect the new Houda and Santou II mines with the newly constructed Dapilon port on the Rio Nunez. They have also constructed a new

alumina Aluminium oxide (or aluminium(III) oxide) is a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen with the chemical formula . It is the most commonly occurring of several aluminium oxides, and specifically identified as aluminium oxide. It is commonly ...

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

in the Boké Special Economic Zone.

Facilities

SMB operates mines at Dabiss, Santou, Kaboe and Malapouya.

Controversy

The company has been cited for numerous human rights and environmental violations. Their operations are implicated in pollution of the air, water and land in areas surrounding its facilities. Water sources near their facilities have been polluted, resulting in numerous municipalities relying on SMB's tanker trucks for all their water. The company has also been criticized for impropriety when acquiring land.

References

{{Africa-company-stub Aluminium companies of Guinea Mining companies of Guinea