SHMET January 31: Guinea Mining Development Corporation on January 30 condemned the strike initiated by employees as an “illegal act,” accusing the union of refusing to comply with Order No. 757 on “Employee Rank Division” and making violations of demands, despite the company’s promise to distribute a special bonus of 1.35 million Guinean francs and increase various subsidies; the strike caused production and operations to halt, with one judicial officer being assaulted and hospitalized. Both labor and management are scheduled to hold negotiations at 10 a.m. on February 2 under the coordination of the Ministry of Labor. Analysts believe that if this labor dispute continues to escalate, it could affect the stability of global bauxite supply, as any disruption in Guinea—China’s largest source of bauxite imports—would amplify price volatility risks.
Reference: Real-time Map of Guinea Mineral Rights Distribution
In fact, in 2015 and the following years, the Boké mining area in Guinea experienced multiple protests initiated by local communities, with core issues centered on insufficient land compensation, severe environmental pollution, and lack of infrastructure. This is closely related to SMB (Société Minière de Boké), established in 2014, which has been involved in looting bauxite in the area. SMB started construction in March 2015, began production in July, and started exporting in September. Behind this is the brutal mining methods employed by capitalists to save fixed capital and accelerate capital turnover: after blasting to open mines, 75-ton mining trucks transport ore via a 15-kilometer locally constructed red soil gravel road to the Katougouma inland port, where the ore is loaded onto 8,000-ton barges via conveyor belts. After traveling about 60 kilometers along the Rio Nunez River to the sea, the bauxite is transferred to ocean-going ships. The bourgeoisie, in pursuit of high profits, has long ignored the emissions, wastewater, and waste generated by industry, and SMB, to quickly reap profits, naturally does not care about the severe environmental destruction, not even building asphalt roads—only a 15-kilometer dirt road and 75-ton trucks cause dust clouds that seriously affect local residents’ lives and health.
According to data from the Guinea Bureau of Environmental Research and Assessment (BGEEE), the concentration of red dust particles around the ore transport roads is 5 to 8 times higher than normal, which not only affects human health but also reduces crop yields; river transport impacts fish reproduction, blasting activities damage village houses, and mining activities cause local farmland degradation, among other issues.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Records show that between 2015 and 2018, at least 35 protests and blockades against SMB mining activities occurred in Boké. In 2018, a large-scale strike at SMB was triggered by the arrest of union leaders, leading to a 10-day shutdown of the mine, reducing SMB’s bauxite output by about 1 to 1.2 million tons, while protests also disrupted port shipments.
So, who is this reactionary SMB company? It was established in 2014 by the Winning International Group (from Singapore), China Hongqiao, Guinea UMS Group, and China Yantai Port Group, forming the Winning Alliance (SMB-Winning Consortium) with the Guinea government. China Hongqiao leads mining operations, Winning International handles shipping, UMS manages land transport, and Yantai Port is responsible for land-to-port bauxite transportation. Shareholding ratios are: Winning International 45%, China Hongqiao (a subsidiary of China Hongqiao) 35%, UMS 20%. It is currently Guinea’s largest bauxite producer and exporter, with an annual output exceeding 55 million tons.
In reality, SMB is essentially a company used to supply large amounts of bauxite to Chinese aluminum enterprises. Due to the high demand for raw materials in the Chinese aluminum industry, many Chinese aluminum companies have entered Guinea’s resource-rich bauxite areas to plunder. By 2025, over 95% of Guinea’s bauxite exports go to China, accounting for 74% of China’s total bauxite imports, and about 69% of global exports, making Guinea heavily dependent on a single bauxite export for foreign exchange, turning it into a colonial appendage of Chinese aluminum industry.
To facilitate long-term efficient resource plundering, SMB built a 125-kilometer Dachen Railway connecting Saint-Tou mine area to Dabilong Port. The bauxite mined in the area is directly shipped via this railway and port to Shandong ports, greatly facilitating the greed-driven plunder of Chinese enterprises. Ironically, this railway, built to Chinese standards and opened in 2021, is Guinea’s first modern railway in nearly half a century, vividly illustrating that the bourgeoisie only builds transportation infrastructure for profit, not for serving the people. The Winning Alliance shamelessly claims that this railway has driven economic and social development along the line, but in reality, it only built some parallel maintenance roads, claiming to facilitate local residents’ travel, while ignoring the negative impacts such as dust pollution during transport causing agricultural decline and respiratory diseases, turning clear drinking water sources into red mud, forcing villagers to seek water elsewhere—can this be offset by “convenient travel”? The alliance reportedly created over 12,000 to 15,000 direct jobs, with each employee supporting 10-15 Guinean livelihoods, revealing it as a brutal exploitative monopoly.
Since May 2025, the Guinean military government has revoked over 200 mining licenses. SMB claims that the government’s rectification policies do not involve SMB-GTS (GTS being SMB’s trading platform) or its mining rights. In fact, after the military government expelled small and medium-sized mining companies, the concentration and monopoly of SMB and China Aluminum (Chinalco) increased significantly. These measures serve to monopolize Guinea’s economy for these Chinese enterprises.
In the 2024 Guinea general strike, Guinean workers, under the leadership of the Guinean Trade Union Movement, began a nationwide strike on February 26, shutting down enterprises and disrupting the entire mining industry. They demanded lower basic food prices, higher wages, lifting internet restrictions, and the release of detained union leaders. Under strong pressure from the working class, the detained leaders were released on February 28. This strike was also a response to the military government’s unjust dissolution of the transitional government, representing local workers’ resistance to the military’s restriction of democratic rights.
On September 13, truck drivers and local residents at the Bofa mine area, operated by Chinalco Shunda Mining, blocked the road leading to the mine, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. However, Shunda’s HR director shamelessly claimed to have increased the basic wages of these drivers from 1.8 million Guinean francs (about 1,476 RMB) to 1.9 million francs (about 1,558 RMB). The workers, ungrateful, demanded further wage increases within less than a month and refused to sign labor contracts that did not meet their expectations.
One day after the Shunda mining road blockade, an article titled Mines à Boffa: Les employés pleurent, la population souffre (translated: Workers Cry, People Suffer) was published. Soon after, someone wrote a malicious article attacking the miners and local residents fighting for survival rights, claiming that “Chinese-funded mining companies have seen increased violence from Guinea troublemakers this year,” distorting facts to portray local villagers as ungrateful and as main disruptors of Chinese mining areas, claiming the article is a smear campaign against mining, saying “Poor people can no longer afford good fish as before,” and even claiming “some miners are being dragged by the devil, suffering.” This person used classic Chinese tactics, noting that the article was published on a website registered in France, using it as “irrefutable evidence” in the malicious article, seemingly implying that “foreign forces” are inciting conflicts between local people and Chinese colonizers. In reality, the website (Guinea News) is a comprehensive French-language news site dedicated to local Guinea news, heavily promoting SMB, UMS, and their leaders.
This individual also appears to claim objectivity, stating that while Chinalco brought economic development to Guinea, the living standards of the Guinean people have not significantly improved. While seemingly caring about the Guinean people, the use of the term “troublemakers” to insult protesting workers and residents shows he is a pro-China colonizer opponent, whitewashing China’s role, claiming that China’s original intention was good—bringing prosperity—only that the Guinean government is too corrupt, misappropriating the cake, and making people suffer. In fact, imperialist countries and comprador governments are tightly linked; without imperialist support, comprador governments cannot maintain rule. For example, after the 2021 military coup, Chinese special envoy Zheng Jianbang attended the inauguration of Mamadi Dumbuya as president, with other foreign dignitaries being African leaders and organizations, showing China’s keen interest in Guinea’s mineral-rich land.
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But the Guinean people are not afraid of struggle. Their past unity and resistance will only grow stronger in the future to overthrow comprador governments and imperialist colonizers like China. We must resolutely oppose China’s aggression against third-world countries and support the just struggles of local workers.
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Recently, the internationally prominent Simandou iron ore in Guinea has also come under the control of the Winning Consortium Simandou, which is supported by Chinese enterprises including China Baowu Steel Group, and owns the Simandou No. 1 and No. 2 mines. Rio Tinto and Aluminum Corp. of China jointly control the Nos. 3 and 4 mines of the Simandou project. “The Winning Consortium commits to responsible mining in Simandou, Guinea.” However, the mortality rate among workers on the mines, railway, and port infrastructure managed by the consortium is abnormally high. From June 2023 to November 2024, six local workers died in port and remote mining areas in Guinea, and during the construction of the 670-kilometer railway, at least five local community members died in traffic accidents caused by construction vehicles, in addition to 13 workers who died overall. An assessment draft prepared by the French company Artelia for the Winning Consortium pointed out poor health and safety conditions at the camps, extremely limited first aid training, and uneven quality of medical facilities at the main camps. This recalls scenes from the era of European colonial invasions in Africa:
In equatorial Africa, an average of two hundred Africans die for every kilometer of railway built, with a corpse lying beneath each sleeper.
The Winning Consortium’s response to responsible mining has been silence and disclaimers:
The Simandou Winning Consortium and Rio Tinto have not responded to specific incidents or the quality of medical services on site.
A review of ten accident reports by Reuters shows that the families of the deceased and seriously injured signed memoranda of understanding and disclaimers, agreeing that the Winning Consortium bears no responsibility for damages.
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