A major contract, valued at about €100-million, has been secured by German integrated solutions provider to the global mining, bulk materials handling and minerals industries Tenova Takraf for the turnkey supply and installation of a bauxite handling plant in Guinea, West Africa.

The plant, for bauxite mining company Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG), is scheduled for commissioning in the second half of 2018.

CBG, which has mined and exported bauxite for more than 50 years, has put in place an ambitious programme to increase its export capacity, which involves Tenova Takraf supplying equipment for the unloading of rail wagons and crushing and conveying of bauxite.

“A major challenge is the brownfield character of the works, which means that the new supplies and modifications to the existing plant have to be carried out while the installation is in operation. Very limited plant downtime and difficult conditions for logistics are a further challenge,” explains the company.

Guinea, located on the west coast of Africa, boasts the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, a raw ore from which alumina is extracted. Thereafter, alumina is usually used to produce aluminium,

is important in the aviation industry, automobile fabrication and the manufacture of many more durable goods.

CBG, jointly owned by the Mining Halco partnership – international mining houses Alcoa (22.95%), Rio Tinto (22.95%) and Dadco Alumina & Chemicals (5.1%) – and the government of Guinea (49%), was formed in 1963 to exploit bauxite in the Boké region.

With about 2 400 employees, CBG mines the Sangarédi bauxite deposit in north-western Guinea, recognised for its rich orebody containing more than 50% alumina, explains Alcoa.

CBG exports about 15.2-million tons of high-grade bauxite a year. Its mining rights extend to 2038.

Tenova Takraf is executing the CBG contract in close cooperation with its subsidiaries in the US, China and South Africa, while the project lead is based in Leipzig, Germany.

Takraf CEO Dr Frank Hubrich underlines the importance of this project for the establishment of the company in the important markets in West Africa and praises the good cooperation between the different entities of the company.

With roots dating back to 1725, Tenova Takraf has a wealth of experience in the development, design, fabrication, assembly and commissioning of equipment and systems for the global mining and materials handling industry.

Tenova Takraf, based in the city of Leipzig, in the eastern German state of Saxony, has more than 1 000 employees worldwide, and is part of Tenova, which is based in Milan, Italy, and, in turn, belongs to Italian engineering company Techint, an integrated technology and turnkey industrial plants supplier.