Iron Ore
Simandou introduces a new high-grade supply source into the seaborne market, with rail and port capacity as the critical path.
Key data
- Unit
- Mtpa
- Value
- Pending verification
- As of
- Pending verification
- Value chains
- Iron ore to steel
- Leading African producers
- South Africa, Guinea
Related projects
Leading African producers
South Africa
South Africa has the continent's deepest mining, metals and chemicals industrial base, and its energy agenda is dominated by Eskom's generation fleet, transmission capacity and the renewables procurement programme.
Guinea
Guinea is the world's leading bauxite exporter and host of Simandou, one of the largest untapped high-grade iron ore deposits, developed together with a trans-Guinean railway and a new port.
Related companies
Value chains
Related industries
Related infrastructure
Related commodities
Platinum Group Metals
South Africa's Bushveld Complex holds the largest platinum group metal reserves in the world and supplies the majority of global mined platinum, with Zimbabwe the second African source.
Gold
Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Tanzania and Burkina Faso anchor African gold output across large-scale and artisanal production.
Coal
South African thermal coal and Mozambican coking coal remain significant export earners and power-sector inputs.
Bauxite
Guinea is the world's largest bauxite exporter; the strategic question is how much value is captured through domestic alumina refining.
Related news
SimFer begins staged commissioning of Morebaya port for Simandou
Stacker-reclaimers and shiploaders are being commissioned. The port was 85% complete at end-H1 2026, with full commissioning expected in Q1 2027; ore ships via the WCS port meanwhile.
Simandou corridor: rail and port works define the critical path
Guinea's iron ore ambition is bounded less by orebody quality than by the trans-Guinean railway and port commissioning sequence.
Eskom energy availability reaches 68.2%, highest in six years
Eskom reports a financial-year-to-date Energy Availability Factor of 68.2%. Year-to-date diesel spend fell R4.87 billion (80.47%) to R1.18 billion, and the utility reports 5,695 MW of surplus capacity.
Transmission capacity, not generation, now frames South Africa's renewables debate
Grid access constraints in high-resource provinces are the binding factor for new renewable capacity.
Guinea presses for domestic alumina refining
Policy signalling continues to favour in-country value addition over raw bauxite export, with power supply the decisive constraint.
Related intelligence
- Rio Tinto
Simandou iron ore project
Last verified 26 Aug 2026Verified
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