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Bamako – Landlocked Mali aims to diversify its mining sector away from gold with Chinese-built rail projects worth $9.5 billion that would link it to the Atlantic coast, even as slowing Chinese growth and falling commodity prices cool investment.
The West African nation – the continent’s third-largest gold producer – said last month it had signed a string of investment deals with China totalling $11 billion, with most of this going to finance the rail deals.
Chinese authorities, however, have not confirmed the investment. Mali said $8 billion would finance a 900-km (560-mile) railway to Guinea’s port capital Conakry and $1.5 billion would renovate a rail link to Senegal’s capital Dakar, Mali’s main gateway port.
The improved transport links would attract investors to under-explored resources such as iron ore, bauxite and uranium that are bulkier and more costly to transport than gold. “The infrastructure will enable Mali to end its dependency on gold,” said Lassana Guindo, an adviser at the mines ministry.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is striving to kick start Mali’s economy after a brief French-led war in early 2013 against northern Islamist rebels dragged it into recession.
Last week it also became the sixth West African country to be touched by the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed nearly 5,000 people and hammered regional trade.
No deadline has been set for delivery of the rail projects but Mohamed Saïba Soumano, an adviser in Mali’s transport ministry, said talks were underway after the Chinese delegation’s visit to Bamako on Oct. 13.
China Railway Engineering Corporation would build the Bamako-Conakry leg while China Railway Construction Corporation would be responsible for Bamako-Dakar, Soumano said.
He said the parties would sign tripartite framework deals between Mali-China-Guinea and Mali-China-Senegal.
“After the framework agreements, the Chinese partner will have up to 12 months to present a detailed preliminary project,” Soumano said.
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