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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.

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.

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.

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.

China International Water & Electric Corporation (CWE) announced on 2 February the signing of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and Ministry of Finance for the 450MW Souapiti dam and hydropower plant on the Konkoure River. The $1.38bn contract is expected to be completed in 58 months and will involve the construction of a roller-compacted concrete dam with a maximum height of 116.5 metres and length of 1,148 metres, as well as a power plant with a design installed capacity of 450MW and average annual output of 1.9TWh.

Hyperdynamics Corporation has filed legal actions against its partners Tullow Oil and Dana Petroleum in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas and before the American Arbitration Association over what it says is their failure to prepare for a well due by September.

The Islamic Development Bank is providing the government with $56m to finance the second phase of a project to rehabilitate and extend the electricity network in Conakry. Work will be carried out in the Matam, Matoto and Lansanayah districts, and Electricité de Guinée intends to use some of the funds to supervise the work. Tenders will be issued over the coming months, with contracts announced as they become available.

The Senegal River Basin Development Organisation (OMVS) has invited expressions of interest by 26 November to carry out separate studies for the development of two hydropower projects on the Bafing River and a feasibility study for three micro-hydropower plants in the Senegal River Basin, both in Guinea.

Kosmos Energy has licensed blocks 6 and 11 in the São Tomé & Príncipe (STP) Exclusive Economic Zone and is waiting on the award of blocks LB-6 and LB-7 in Liberia, as it seeks low-cost new opportunities offshore West Africa. Block 11 was acquired from ERHC Energy, the others were unlicensed. Kosmos said the STP acquisition marked a strategic re-entry into the Gulf of Guinea/Transform Margin. “It’s an area we know very well and which provides an opportunity to pursue the Cretaceous theme that was successful for us in Ghana with the discovery of the Jubilee field,” said a spokesman.

President Alpha Condé on 28 September formally inaugurated the 240MW Kaléta dam, whose first turbine started generating power in May. The ceremony, attended by Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou and his Congolese counterpart Denis Sassou Nguesso, took place less than two weeks before Guinea’s 11 October presidential election, in which Condé is seeking a second five-year term. Improved power supplies were one of his main campaign pledges in 2010, but efforts to improve the situation have run into a number of challenges.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined Hyperdynamics $75,000 over its management of public relations and lobbying payments in Guinea. The company agreed to pay the fine without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, and says it has incurred $12.7m in legal and other professional fees during the investigation. In May, the US Department of Justice closed its investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) without bringing charges against the company.