As recently announced in our columns, the basic agreement for the exploitation of Blocks 1 and 2 of Mount Simandou by the Guinean-Chinese consortium Société minière de Boké (SMB-Winning) was officially signed on Tuesday June 9 by the Minister of Mines, Abdoulaye Magassouba, who referred to « an important step in the development of the Guinean mining sector ». The agreement, which should concretely result in the start of the largest industrial mining project of the country, notably includes the construction of a 650 km railway line and a deep-water port. The total cost of the project is estimated at $14 billion and is expected to generate $15 billion in cumulative revenues for Guinea over its 25-year life.