Such is the known hostility to Condé's government of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz that observers have wondered if he was involved...
His company Beny Steinmetz Group Resources lost its licence to develop part of the giant Simandou iron-ore reserve in April 2014 after the government determined it had originally been acquired corruptly (AC Vol 56 No 17 Swiss probe in Conakry)...
'There are no connections between the NGO which writes Shades of Condé and Beny Steinmetz albeit the topic is very much applicable to the BSGR story' BSGR told AC...
Seemingly unscarred by the Regal fiasco Timis followed in the footsteps of Israeli diamond billionaire Beny Steinmetz who had invested in one of his earlier European mining ventures Gabriel Resources in Timis's native Romania...
That's when Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz won the rights to mine half of the Simandou project believed to be the world's largest untapped reserve of iron ore (AC Vol 56 No 5 A dream deferred)...
These enquiries are the first public signal for months that the international investigation into Steinmetz and his firm Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) the mining arm of his business empire is still alive and kicking...
The Vale-Beny Steinmetz Group Resources-Guinea joint venture company VBG had a licence to export iron ore from its Zogota mine through Liberia...
Under the hammer are Blocks 1 and 2 (aka Simandou North) which the government had stripped from Vale-Beny Steinmetz Group Resources-Guinea...
Tycoon Beny Steinmetz is using every device he can to contest the Conakry government's decision to take away his iron-ore mining licence...
Steinmetz who is under investigation along with his Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) now claims President Alpha Condé won a rigged election in 2010 and promised his licences to South African interests...
No sooner had the Guinean government cancelled the licences of Beny Steinmetz and Brazil's Vale for the Simandou iron ore deposit than Rio Tinto sued them in New York...
The claim for 'compensatory consequential exemplary and punitive' damages also names Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) intermediaries for Steinmetz and several Guineans including ex-Mining Minister Mahmoud Thiam (AC Vol 55 No 8 Beny fights on)...
If the Guinean government cancels the licences of the Beny Steinmetz Group Resources to exploit Blocks 1 and 2 of the Simandou iron-ore reserves the BSGR will continue its legal fight to reverse the decision a source close to the company told Africa Confidential...
Vol 55 No 7 |
- GUINEA
- MINING
Beny Steinmetz the Israeli billionaire whose stake in Guinea's giant Simandou iron ore deposit is in dispute is having a bad year...
Last month Beny Steinmetz Group Resources received a letter informing it that the technical panel reviewing mining contracts in Guinea had advised the government to cancel its licence to exploit the northern part of Simandou Blocks 1 and 2 because the panel had found gross irregularities in the way the firm had obtained the concession in 2008 (AC Vol 54 No 13 Condé takes on Steinmetz)...
Beny Steinmetz's continual clashes with the government will persist...