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A financing package for Alufer Mining’s Bel Air bauxite project has come as a welcome boost for a sector overshadowed by the Simandou affair and the aftermath of the 2014 Ebola crisis. Alufer has raised $90m of convertible debt and $35m of equity from a consortium of Resource Capital Funds, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Orion Mine Finance and existing shareholders, as well as $80m of senior debt from Orion. The funds will be used to develop the Bel Air bauxite mine through to first commercial production.

Houston-based Hyperdynamics says it has accepted a proposal from drilling contractor Pacific Drilling to use the Pacific Scirocco drillship instead of the Pacific Bora for the Fatala-1 well, due to spud in April. Financial terms under the contract are unchanged. “The Pacific Scirocco is equipped to drill in deeper water – up to 12,000 feet – and could handle either of the two optional follow-up fan wells that may be drilled if the Fatala-1 well is successful,” said Hyperdynamics president and chief executive Ray Leonard. The Pacific Scirocco has been working offshore Nigeria for Total for the last five years.

As the dry season reduces water flow at the Kaléta dam, power cuts have led to riots in the city of Kindia, where demonstrators in at least two districts built barricades and burned tyres to demand the restoration of power supply. The police intervened to restore calm but the city remains tense. Load shedding in Conakry has even affected the central business district of Kaloum.

Beny Steinmetz has been placed under house arrest in Israel amid an investigation into his BSG Resources’ acquisition of rights to the Simandou iron ore mining project.Israeli police detained Steinmetz on suspicion of bribery and money laundering. A court on 19 December released him to house arrest for two weeks on bail of 100m shekels ($26m). His Israeli and French passports were confiscated and he was barred from leaving Israel for 180 days.

Hyperdynamics has signed a letter of intent for Nigeria’s South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPetro) to take a 20% stake in the company’s offshore oil and gas concession where a well is due next year. The letter of intent, which is non-binding, calls for SAPetro to take a 20% participating interest in exchange for paying 40% of the costs of the upcoming Fatala well up to a $50m cap of predicted total well costs. Above that amount, SAPetro would pay its proportional 20% share.

While much of the world was distracted by Donald Trump’s election in the US, Rio Tinto announced on 9 November that it had suspended energy and minerals head Alan Davies and accepted the resignation of legal and regulatory affairs executive Debra Valentine after discovering $10.5m in payments to a French adviser to Guinean President Alpha Condé.Rio said it had launched an investigation and alerted regulators after becoming aware on 29 August of emails from 2011 that referred to contractual payments to an unidentified consultant relating to its Simandou iron ore project.

US minnow Hyperdynamics has reduced its licence area by 75% and will open a data room for the relinquished acreage as part of an agreement with the government to extend the licence for 12 months. President and chief executive Ray Leonard told the Oil Capital forum in London on 21 September the company would seek a new partner or equity funding to drill the Fatala well, on a deep-water fan prospect. Fatala has a projected spud date of April 2017 and is expected to cost $46m; Hyperdynamics would like to drill a second well, bringing the cost to $77m.

Sable Mining is to cancel its AIM listing and take the company private after a series of factors including the lower iron ore price and a Global Witness investigation depressed its share price. The cancellation takes effect from 17 October.Sable’s main asset is the Nimba iron ore project in south-east Guinea. Sentiment has been affected by political instability in Guinea, the Ebola epidemic and low iron ore prices, as well as what Sable described as “unpredictability of legal systems together with unsubstantiated and irresponsible allegations and adverse press speculation”.

Tullow Oil and Dana Petroleum have reached a settlement with Hyperdynamics subsidiary SCS Corporation in their dispute over drilling plans. The two companies have pulled out of the production-sharing contract (PSC), and transferred their interest in the long-lead items purchased by the consortium in preparation for the drilling of the Fatala well. Hyperdynamics has agreed a one-year extension to the PSC covering a smaller area, with a commitment to drill a well next year. In January 2016, Hyperdynamics took legal action against Tullow and Dana, saying they had failed to meet their obligations under the joint operating agreement and the PSC which required a well to be drilled by September 2016.

The start-up of the Kaléta dam in mid 2015 improved power supply for several months but low water levels mean that only one of the dam’s three turbines is able to operate. With insufficient thermal capacity to fill the gap, power cuts have again become commonplace in outlying districts of Conakry. An Electricité de Guinée (EDG) official told African Energy almost all the country’s available capacity at present is being produced by thermal plants in Conakry.

African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina’s visit to Guinea on 16-17 May was focused on developing the country’s energy sector. Guinea plans to harness its hydro potential to power domestic mining and supply the region. The estimated cost of its planned energy schemes totals some $4bn.There had been reports that differences emerged between Adesina and Guinean President Alpha Condé during December’s COP21 climate talks in Paris about the best way to manage the funds promised by donors.

The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (OMVS) is pressing ahead with the 300MW Koukoutamba hydro scheme on the Bafing River, which will cost an estimated $800m to develop. Koukoutamba is the first of three dams planned for the river, to be followed by the 160MW Bouréyah and 140MW Falayah schemes.It will be the biggest dam developed by the OMVS, which also developed the 200MW Manantali dam in Mali, the Diama dam which supplies water to Nouakchott and Dakar, and the 60MW Felou dam inaugurated in 2013.

In June 2015, France’s Veolia signed a four-year contract worth €11.3m to manage Electricité de Guinée (EDG). There have been demonstrations against installation of prepaid meters in Kaloum, the business and administrative centre of Conakry, which has 14,000 EDG clients. EDG agents in the Sandervaliah district were chased away by gangs of youths and a protest march was organised. Installation of prepaid meters, supplied by Togolese company Togo Assistance Services, forms part of the donor-funded Electricity Sector Efficiency Improvement Project. Some $15m has already been released for the project, part of which has funded the rehabilitation of about 45km of underground distribution cables in Kaloum, which date back to French colonial rule.

The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (OMVS) has invited bids for the design, supply, construction and commissioning of the 300MW Koukoutamba dam on the Bafing River. The project will comprise an 86-metre-high dam with a central section in roller-compacted concrete, a power house with four 73.5MW Francis turbines, two 225kV transmission lines of 465km and 250km, and a 150km access road from Labé. Bids are due by 16 June. A site visit will take place on 30 April-1 May, followed by a bidders’ meeting in Conakry on 4-5 May. Bidders are invited to submit proposals for financing of the project.

Development of Guinea’s mineral resources has long been hampered by a lack of infrastructure, but the government is keen to harness donor support for post-Ebola recovery to attract large-scale investment. Guernsey-based Alufer Mining signed a mining convention for the Bel Air bauxite mining project on 1 February, the first to be completed under Guinea’s new mining code. The Bel Air deposit is just 15km from the coast, which minimises the infrastructure required. Alufer, part of Pella Resources Group, eventually plans to develop the higher grade Labé deposit in central Guinea, but this would require a 200km railway to evacuate the bauxite.