外媒：力拓向几内亚铁矿项目追投1.7亿美元

概述：力拓向几内亚西芒杜（Simandou）铁矿项目追投1.7亿美元。

Rio Tinto to boost investment in huge Guinea iron-ore mine

CONAKRY — Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto announced Tuesday it would invest an additional 170 million US dollars (130 million euros) in the joint development of a huge Guinean iron-ore field with China's Chalco.

"This investment of 170 million US dollars, in addition to the 650 million dollars already invested, will be effective immediately" for the extraction of iron-ore from Simandou in south-east Guinea, Rio Tinto said in a statement.

This will "allow for the optimisation of the design of the mine, mining infrastructure, the railway and port facilities and additional drilling."

Rio Tinto's current plan foresees "the construction of a mine at Simandou with an annual capacity of 95 million tonnes, a dedicated industrial railway of 650 kilometres (403 miles), which includes 21 kilometres of tunnels and crosses Guinea up the coast," the statement added.

"Simandou will be the largest integrated infrastructure and iron ore project developed in Africa to date," Rio Tinto's director of iron-ore extraction Sam Walsh said in the statement.

The Anglo-Australian company announced on July 29 it had signed an agreement with Chinese company Chalco to jointly develop the iron-ore mine, with the Chinese company to invest 1.35 billion dollars in the project.

Chalco, a listed subsidiary of state-owned Chinalco, will acquire a 44.65 percent interest in the Simandou project in Guinea and Rio will take 50.35 percent.

The remaining five percent will be held by the International Finance Corporation, the financing arm of the World Bank.

The Guinean government has the option to buy up to 20 percent of the project, where operations are expected to start within five years.

（来源：AFP）