international
construction
july-august 2014
REGIONAL REPORT
32
South African hope
Further north, the continent is about to see some of its
largest capital infrastructure investments yet. Australian miner
Rio Tinto will spend around US$ 20 billion developing its
Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea. This will entail building
one of the world’s biggest iron ore mines, a 650 km railway to
Guinea’s Atlantic coast, as well as building a deepwater port to
ship the iron ore to China and Europe.
Unusually for these kinds of projects, the rail line will be open
access. Mostly mines prefer to build and use a line exclusively
for their own purposes, as is the case in Australia, practise critics
say stymies the development of smaller secondary projects in the
area. The significance is that other potential mining projects in
the region could come into being creating a global mining hub
to rival Canada, Australia and South Africa.
Staying in central Africa, Australian miner Sundance
Resources is to go ahead with its US$ 3.5 billion iron ore project
in Cameroon.
Much of the spending will be on a 510 km railway, 70 km
rail spur line and port upgrades on the west coast. Portuguese
contractor Mota-Engil fought of fierce Chinese competition to
secure the contract, with South Africa’s Standard Bank doing
the financing.
Projects such as these are still relatively rare however. It will
take an upswing in commodity prices – and China’s appetite for
more raw materials – to bring a sustainable flow of new build
projects. Overall, for those willing to establish themselves in a
tough market the future is fairly rosy.
iC
Mozambique is enjoying the benefits of large offshore gas and onshore coal
development that will see new rail and port infrastructure being built
Botswana is investing heavily in power and other
civic projects but fierce competition from Chinese
bidders make heavy going for regional firms
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