Our Team > Abdoulaye Magassouba

With more than 20 years of experience, Abdoulaye spent a large part of his career in the private sector and joined the government in 2013 as Advisor to the President of the Republic of Guinea in charge of the delivery of priority projects (mining, energy and agriculture) before serving as Minister of Mines and Geology for more than five years.

Abdoulaye’s career has been driven by his passion for integrated and sustainable development, which started with audit and consulting assignments with Arthur Andersen and KPMG and very quickly moved to leading roles in the development of major energy, infrastructure, mining and governance projects in Guinea.

As a Minister, Abdoulaye successfully implemented a series of reforms which significantly improved Guinea’s position in Africa and in the world in terms of attractiveness for investment in the mining sector with Guinea moving from the 20th position (103rd in the world) to the top position (20th in the world) from 2015 to 2019 (Fraser Institute, Canada, 2015 and 2019). Such reforms included amongst others:

– Adoption of the new Mining Policy and the Mining Sector Development Plan in Guinea, as well as essential implementation decrees of the mining code, which Abdoulaye initiated and led. Key achievements included the establishment of a modern and transparent mining cadastre, the compliance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the publication of mining contracts, the initiation of reforms on artisanal mining and the intensification of geological research.

– Adoption of a new code dealing with environmental and social impacts, for which Abdoulaye provided guidance and support.

– Implementation of policies for an effective management of social, environmental and economic impacts of infrastructure and mining projects, which Abdoulaye initiated and led. These policies included the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, the Local Content Policy for the mining sector as well as the mining related infrastructure sharing masterplan and the Responsible Mineral Development Initiative (RMDI), with an inclusive approach (Government, donors, private sector, civil society and local communities).

Key roles include:

• Société AngloGold Ashanti de Guinée: Chairman of the Board of Siguiri Gold Mine (2016-2021) – Siguiri is owned 85% by AngloGold Ashanti with the remaining 15% held by the State of Guinea. The gold processing plant is designed to treat 12Mt annually on a 100% basis.
• Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG): Chairman of the Board (2016-2021) – The Guinean company CBG is 49 % owned by the Guinean State, with the remainder owned by Halco Mining, a consortium of Alcoa, Rio Tinto Alcan and Dadco Investments.  CBG started exporting bauxite in 1973 and recently initiated a significant multi-phased expansion project.
• Société des Mines de Fer de Guinée (SMFG) : Board member (2020-2021) – Majority-owned by High Power Exploration (HPX), SMFG is currently in the process of developing a Feasibility Study for its world class high-grade, low impurity, Nimba iron ore project in the Republic of Guinea.
• SOGUIPAMI: Chairman of the Board (2016-2021) – Soguipami is the state owned mining company of the Republic of Guinea.

Education, citizenship and languages:

• Master’s in Economics (Fulbright scholarship), from the Center for Development Economics of Williams College (USA)
• Guinean citizen
• Languages: English, French