After 27 years, the world’s largest mining project is about to start in one of its most troubled countries

The project will see the UK-Australian mining company RioTinto work in conjunction with Chinese, Singaporean, and other companies to build a massive iron ore mine in a remote part of Guinea, an African country

The companies will then finance a railway to the capital and a port there to export their products

The project – first signed in 1997 – is finally set to kick off this year

Guinea – a mountainous and forested region of West Africa – became a French colony in the late-19th century

By the late 1950s, it became clear that most of Europe’s African colonies were bound for independence

Those colonies faced a choice: Should they keep or sever ties with their former colonizers?

On the one hand, the colonizers had subjugated, controlled, and often repressed them; on the other, they had expertise, technology, and capital that could help the young countries grow

Guinea chose to cut ties

In 1958, France held a referendum in which its colonies voted on whether to approve the new French constitution, which would maintain ties between France and the colonies

Every French African colony voted in favor, except one – Guinea, where 95% voted against

Under nationalist leader Ahmed Sékou Touré, in 1958, Guinea became the first French-speaking African colony to gain independence

The French – seeking to intimidate other colonies and prevent their property from becoming Guinean – took all they could: Lightbulbs, medicines, blueprints

Already a backwater in France’s empire, Guinea was left with nothing

Within two years, President Touré had declared Guinea to be a socialist one-party state

Seeking to cut all ties with colonialism, he nationalized land and dismissed officials who had been appointed by the French while having thousands of his opponents executed

Touré ruled until he died in 1984, at which point 26 years of independence had left Guinea little better off than it had started

Immediately after Touré’s death, the military seized power

The coup’s leader – who would rule from 1984 until 2008 – did little to develop the country, but he opened it up for some foreign investment

In 1997, Rio Tinto signed an agreement to develop an iron-ore mine in a remote corner of the country, 340 miles (550 kms) from the capital

But the project wouldn’t be easy

It required billions in investment to build the mine and infrastructure needed to operate it

That, in turn, required political stability

Instead, Guinea nearly fell into civil war in the early 2000s and suffered another coup in 2008

In 2014, an ebola outbreak started there before spreading to other West African countries, creating an epidemic

And in 2021, another coup occurred

Guinea is now the world’s 10th-least developed country, per UN data

It currently faces an acute fuel crisis: In late December, Guinea’s primary fuel storage depot exploded, killing at least 21 and causing fuel shortages across the country

Hospitals closed, food shortages began, prices soared, and violent unrest broke out

Nearly a month later, the situation has improved but remains bleak

Through those years, Guinea’s government renegotiated contracts and extracted bribes from the mining companies

The process has drawn out so long that Rio Tinto has gone through six CEOs since embarking on the project in 1997

The company has also faced legal issues: Last year, the US government fined it $15M for bribing Guinean officials, a scandal that cost two executives their jobs

Yet the turmoil has not dissuaded the mining companies

Guinea’s iron ore is of a quality that enables it to become steel with relatively low carbon emissions, making it a coveted asset

So valuable is the iron that Rio Tinto is preparing to spend $6.2B on the project – more than it sometimes spends on all capital investments in a year – and the companies are willing to build railways, a port, and pay bribes to get it done

Will the great Guinean mine finally break ground?

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