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Sustainability in Guinea
At Alcoa Guinea, we believe that integrating sustainability into every activity—from the earliest phases onward—is an important step toward building a stable and enduring partnership with all of our stakeholders and ensuring that our operation will be viable for the long run for ourselves and our host communities.
In an underdeveloped area of the country, we currently are working with project partner Rio Tinto Alcan to study the feasibility of constructing an alumina refinery. While the proposed refinery would bring substantial economic and social benefits to the local community, the partners wanted to evaluate the environmental effects for the region under consideration—the Boké prefecture.
Because there was minimal information about the Boké prefecture's biodiversity, we engaged Conservation International (CI) to conduct an initial biodiversity assessment and planning project. Such projects integrate biodiversity information and conservation planning into the earliest stages of a project's design and implementation using a science-based approach. Additional information can be found on Alcoa's Guinea website.
As part of the proposed refinery project's community engagement, local authorities and communities were introduced to all of our field team members. These stakeholders are also constantly updated about each phase of the fieldwork.
Through community consultations, we succeeded in establishing a dialogue with the potential host communities. We have explained what a refinery and its facilities are and their potential effects, both positive and negative, within the host communities. We have also gathered citizens' views and concerns about resettlement activities. In late 2007, we formed a Resettlement Advisory Committee that has representatives from the potentially affected communities, local government, Alcoa, and Rio Tinto Alcan. We have set the stage where all issues regarding resettlement will be discussed and possible strategies developed.
We are also actively participating in the capacity building of young university graduates. We are currently employing a group of 11 graduates to assist our national and international consultants with the refinery project's surveying and other fieldwork.
In partnership with local and international non-governmental organizations, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation are also working to develop sustainable community development projects to address identified community needs. These projects are focused on health, education, sustainability, conservation, and capacity-building initiatives.
For example, we have partnered with Population Services International (PSI) and EngenderHealth to sensitize, educate, and train the community on the use of mosquito-treated nets by pregnant women and children—members of society most vulnerable to malaria. PSI is providing these nets at an affordable price to health posts, health units, and designated merchants.
With the Jane Goodall Institute, we are sensitizing and training communities to enable them to help protect chimpanzees, which are at the edge of extinction in some areas of the country. We also have been working with 16 primary schools in the Boké region on a health and education program with partner School to School International. In addition, the Professional Training School of Boké and the Boké Institute of Mines and Geology both benefited from an Alcoa Foundation grant to improve the capacity of their respective facilities to provide a better education to their students.
The Guinea Refinery Project, in partnership with local NGOs, is currently implementing three interim community projects (water, rice, and literacy) as a means of bringing sustainable value to the communities that were part of our site selection process. We hope to soon formulate a community development plan for the Boké region with the collaboration of the prefecture and communities to address local development issues.
All of our actions and investments in Guinea are helping us overcome some of the challenges in doing business in a developing country. These challenges include:
- Politicized decision making that can lead to corruption;
- Multiple stakeholder layers created by the government;
- Overlapping social structures;
- Challenging cultural environment; and
- Growing suspicion and impatience with multinationals among the population due to historical reasons.
In response, we are promoting Alcoa's values in the community by building local capacity through knowledge transfer, promoting sustainability, and conducting business in a transparent and ethical manner.
Case Studies
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Employees & Sustainability
"Sustainability is all about taking care of Mother Nature and human beings while delivering products of the best quality."
Rafiou Barry
Vice President, Alcoa Guinea
"At Alcoa Guinea, sustainability is a way of life, not a constraint. It means cultivating partnership and collaboration with our communities to support socio-economic development at the local level by adhering to Alcoa's core values of openness and integrity. In a poor country like Guinea, this translates into building capacity in the areas of education, health, and community infrastructure and participation, with the view to enhancing community self-reliance in the long run."
Ibrahima Danso
Manager, Alcoa Guinea
"Sustainability means economic development that takes into account environmental, economic, and social impacts in order to meet present needs without compromising the needs of future generations."
Nene Sow
Sustainability/Community Relations Manager, Alcoa Guinea
"Sustainability is the platform on which our organization must build partnerships to ensure that socio-economic and environmental stewardship is taken to the highest level. It is through our commitment to sustainability that we will be measured by future generations."
Leighton Jones
Resettlement Manager, Global Primary Products Growth, Energy, Bauxite, and Africa
"I am often asked how an industry based fundamentally upon mining can be sustainable. My answer is that although the operational aspects of the industry may not continue indefinitely, the supporting aspects of community development and environmental impact minimization can and should continue in a fully balanced manner that can be maintained in a form acceptable to both the local and more global communities. Certainly, as development occurs, there are impacts and changes to the social and environmental baselines of an area. However, by examining and planning for the long-term, including after the closure of the mine, refinery, or smelter, these impacts can be addressed in a way that facilitates the implementation of a social, economic, and environmental balance and thereby enables a mining-based industry to be a part of or even a catalyst for a sustainable future."
Eric Black
Environmental, Health, Safety and Community Resource/Manager, Alcoa Global Primary Products Growth, Energy, Bauxite, and Africa
"Sustainable development is only achieved when there is the involvement of the communities in places where we are working."
Mamadou Angelo Diallo
Surveyor, Alcoa Guinea
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Guinea Country Page
Learn more about Alcoa's presence in Guinea
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