Rio Tinto suspends iron ore mining at Simandou in Guinea

The British-Australian company Rio Tinto has suspended work and operations at the SimFer mine in the Simandou deposit in Guinea. This is stated in the company’s report

This happened after the death of an employee of a contractor working at the site on February 14. The company said that a thorough investigation will be launched, and Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott will visit Guinea this week.

It should be noted that the first commercial shipment of iron ore from the Simandou deposit was sent to China in December last year, marking the beginning of a significant redistribution of global supplies of raw materials for steel production.

Rio Tinto plans to sell 5-6 million tons of raw materials from this deposit in 2026 and 60 million tons of ore per year at the mine by 2028.

SimFer, a joint venture between the Guinean government, Rio Tinto, and Chalco Iron Ore Holdings, holds the mining concession for blocks 3 and 4 in the south of the deposit, while Singapore’s Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS) operates blocks 1 and 2 in the north.

As reported by GMK Center, the Simandou project is expected to further change the dynamics of the iron ore market, which is already facing an uncertain future in terms of demand. Internal forecasts by some of the world’s largest mining companies indicate that the price of iron ore will fall to $85/t over the next three years as Simandou in Guinea reaches full production capacity over the next 2.5 years.