1990s discovery phase

• High-grade iron-ore bodies identified in southeastern Guinea
• Early exploration confirms world-class resource (65% Fe+)

2002–2008 early rights and initial development

• Guinea awards exploration and development rights
• Rio Tinto progresses studies on what would become SimFer
• First large-scale infrastructure concepts drafted

2008–2014 disputes and licence turbulence

• Government revokes some tenements
• Years of legal battles, arbitrations, and political turnover stall progress

Project effectively split:

• Blocks 1–2 → to Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS)
• Blocks 3–4 → Rio Tinto + Chinese partners (SimFer)

2016–2019 reset attempts

• New Guinean administration pushes for unified rail/port plan
• China’s growing role in African mining renews interest

2020–2022 ownership alignment and framework agreements

• Conakry compels joint infrastructure approach for all four blocks
• Chinese SOEs strengthen shareholdings

Creation of multi-party logistics SPV to develop:

• 600–650 km trans-Guinean railway
• Atlantic deep-water export port

2022–2023 funding structures finalized

• Total corridor and mine capex consolidated around US$20–23 billion
• Financing mix: Chinese SOE capital, partner equity, offtake-backed funding
• EPC contracts awarded for railway, port, and mine infrastructure

2023–2024 construction acceleration

• Heavy-haul rail laying progresses at record pace
• Mine pits, crushers, and processing facilities advance
• Port civil works near completion
• Guinea presses for local content and safety compliance

Early 2025 integration and testing

• First locomotives run trial journeys on the new rail corridor
• Stockpiling begins at Blocks 3–4
• Over 1.5–2 Mt high-grade ore accumulated

October 2025 pre-operational milestones

• Continuous rail movements commence
• Port infrastructure enters commissioning phase

Mid-November 2025 First ore movement to port

• Stockpiles positioned for inaugural shipment
• Government and partners hold launch ceremonies

Late November 2025 first commercial production

• Simandou officially begins production after nearly three decades
• Ramp-up to full capacity (~120 Mtpa potential) begins
• First shipments allocated primarily to Chinese steelmakers.

2026–2030 ramp-up horizon

• Steady-state operations targeted
• Guinea hopes to convert fiscal inflows into industrialisation and corridor development

After nearly three decades of fits and starts, the Simandou iron-ore complex in southern Guinea has moved from blueprint to reality. In mid-November 2025 the partners celebrated the start of operations and the build-up of stockpiles for an inaugural shipment - a milestone that finally unlocks one of the world’s richest high-grade iron-ore deposits and a vast new export corridor from West Africa.

The promise of a mega-project

Simandou’s giant deposit - ultrahigh-grade ore averaging around 65% iron content - was first flagged in the 1990s. The scale of the resource and its metallurgical quality have long promised low-cost, lower-emissions steel feedstock prized by mills seeking to decarbonise. But converting that geological prize into production required not just mines but a new 600–650-km railway and a deep-water port across difficult terrain - an infrastructure challenge on the scale of the mine itself.

Ownership and political history

The project’s path was repeatedly derailed by ownership disputes, political change in Conakry, and corruption allegations. Over the 2000s and 2010s competing claims, licence revocations and diplomatic rows kept the project in limbo. By the 2020s Simandou’s main reserves had effectively been split between two camps: Blocks 1–2 under a Chinese-led consortium (Winning Consortium Simandou, WCS), and Blocks 3–4 developed by a partnership centred on Rio Tinto and Chinese state-linked partners under a vehicle commonly referred to as SimFer. Those splits and the need to coordinate massive, shared logistics shaped every financing and contractual step that followed.

The question of finance

Finance for Simandou combined multinational balance-sheet support, state-owned enterprise equity and Chinese industrial capital. Rio Tinto retained significant interests in Blocks 3–4 via SimFer, but large parts of the project’s construction, port and rail work were financed and built by Chinese investors and contractors - notably players linked to Chinalco/Chalco, Baowu and WCS partners such as Winning International and China Hongqiao. That mix of private capital, Chinese SOE backing and multi-party offtake agreements underpinned the roughly US$20–$23 billion outlay to build mine, rail and port.

Construction milestones and the planning of logistics

Once the financing and ownership framework was finally stabilised, execution moved rapidly by megaproject standards. Key milestones included completing mine pit works and processing facilities in Blocks 3–4, laying the new heavy-haul railway across forested highlands, and building a deep-water export terminal at the Atlantic coast (Forecariah/Labé area). By October 2025 Rio Tinto reported stockpiling around 1.5–2 Mt of high-grade ore and had begun rail movements - a clear operational signal that the integrated system was ready to start sending ore to ships.

Production and first shipments

Public inaugurations and first shipments occurred in early to mid-November 2025. Guinea and project partners marked the beginning of operations with ceremonies at the port and with statements that Simandou would ramp toward design capacity over the coming years (targets commonly cited are up to ~120 Mt a year at full build-out). Rio Tinto, SimFer and WCS partners have since been stockpiling and preparing the first seaborne cargoes destined largely for China, even as Guinea said it would seek to protect a marketing carve-out for some of the state’s share.

Economic and market implications

When fully ramped, Simandou’s output will materially increase the global seaborne supply of high-grade iron ore and reshape trade flows - particularly into China, which remains the world’s dominant steel maker. Analysts and governments expect Simandou to become a mid-to-low-cost source of premium ore suitable for lower-emissions steelmaking routes (direct reduced iron, pellets), with implications for major suppliers in Australia and Brazil. For Guinea, the IMF and others project a substantial near-term GDP uplift and a platform for downstream industrial policy - but realising broad national benefits will depend on sustained governance, good-faith revenue management and industrial linkage programmes.

What comes next?

The immediate task for the project partners is a controlled ramp-up: moving from initial stockpiles and test shipments to steady rail throughput and higher ship loading rates over the next few years. That will involve commissioning additional mine pits, expanding processing and logistics, maintaining safe working standards, and managing how revenue and contracts deliver local economic gains. For global markets, the key watchers will be the quarterly shipment volumes and any shift in pricing for premium 65% Fe ore as new supply hits the seaborne market.

Why Simandou matters: it turns a decades-old geological prize into a new seaborne source of high-grade, lower-emissions iron ore, while testing whether Guinea and its partners can translate megaproject cashflows into long-term national development rather than short-term headlines.