Rio Tinto and the Chalco consortium now hold 53% and 47% interests, respec-tively, in the joint venture, which translates into 50.35% and 44.65% interests in the Simandou project. The International Finance Corporation holds the remaining 5% of the project. The Government of Guinea retains options for participation in the project and is expected to take up its first share in the near future.

The Simandou project has three princi-pal components: a 95-million-mt/y iron ore mine in the Simandou Range in south east-ern Guinea; a trans-Guinean railway of approximately 650 km to transport the ore from the mining concession to the Guinean coast; and a new, deep-water port current-ly planned to be located south of Conakry in the Forécariah prefecture. The first ship-ment of ore is expected by mid-2015. Simandou South will be the largest inte-grated iron ore mine and infrastructure project ever developed in Africa.