Land acquisition and displacement The construction of the railway and mine sites will likely force hundreds of people to leave their lands and homes. This has already been the case for local communities who have been evicted to make space for Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS)'s living quarters in Block 1 and 2. These communities, especially women, were not properly consulted. In addition, the railway, which is currently being constructed for the Simandou project, passes through a territory that is home to at least 450 communities. ​​Several community members have already been impacted by the railway infrastructure, and have expressed concerns about the obstacles they face in negotiating equitable compensation, with many reporting under-compensation or outright theft of their agricultural lands. 

Impacts on livelihoods WCS' own environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) (1) warns that deforestation and land loss associated with the construction of the mine’s infrastructure risk impacting activities that communities rely on for food security, such as farming, hunting, and fishing, and access to water sources. Coastal communities living nearby the port that is also currently being developed for the Simandou project complain of the complete devastation of their livelihoods, as port construction and vehicle traffic have driven away fish populations and blocked them from access to productive fishing grounds.

Impacts on civic space Guinea's civic space, including threats to freedom of association and expression, is classified as “repressed” in the CIVICUS 2022 assessment. Rights-holders at the local and national levels may risk reprisals when seeking to denounce violations of their rights. 

Impacts on cultural rights The pathway of the railway, as identified by WCS, has the potential to impact over 100 cultural sites, including areas and structures of spiritual value like sacred sites, graves, and cemeteries. Many of these have yet to be assessed for significance, and it remains unclear how many will be destroyed or relocated. WCS's ESIA for its mining blocks fails to meaningfully assess or plan for preservation of cultural sites at all.

Carbon emissions The Simandou iron ore mine has the potential to generate significant carbon emissions, including during land and forest clearing, drilling, blasting, hauling, and processing. WCS’s own environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) estimated that Blocks 1 and 2 alone have the potential to produce up to 19 million tonnes of carbon emissions over the 22-year anticipated lifetime of the mine, equivalent to burning 10 million tonnes of coal. An independent expert evaluated the company’s ESIA, and concluded that this is “likely a gross underestimate”, because of a failure to  include emissions resulting from deforestation. On top of this, the land clearing alone - also as estimated by WCS - could release up to 271,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which, according to an analysis by Human Rights Watch, is equivalent to burning about 136,000 tonnes of coal.

Impacts on biodiversity and wildlife The clearance of large areas of forest for mining can lead to habitat loss and fragmentation, disrupting ecosystems and affecting biodiversity. The Simandou region is home to a diverse range of wildlife, including endangered and endemic species. The loss of habitat can lead to a decline in these populations, which can have long-term ecological consequences.  Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS)’s activities have already put nature into great danger, as the company has already cleared approximately 85% of land necessary for the construction of the railway, according to an analysis by Earth InSight. The railway’s route cuts through extensive tracts of primary rainforest known to be the natural habitat of the critically endangered Western Chimpanzee and African Forest Elephant and the endangered Western Red Colobus monkey.

There are clear indications that the impacts of the railroad construction extends well beyond what was presented in the ESIA. A 2022 review of WCS’s environmental and social impact assessment revealed that the company failed to assess its mining blocks for these well-known endangered species, and that its plans to mitigate impacts on biodiversity were grossly inadequate. 

Impacts on protected nature areas The railway traverses several protected areas, including the Haut Niger National Park, which was created to protect one of the last remnants of dry forest in Guinea, and the Outumba-Kilimi-Kuru Hills-Pinselli-Soya Transboundary Priority Landscape, which includes primary forest, buffer zones, and corridors essential for the survival of endangered species such as the forest elephant, pygmy hippopotamus, and the Western African chimpanzee. The railway will run just adjacent to other protected areas, such as the Outumba-Kilimi National Park in Sierra Leone and Kounounkan Classified Forest, likely opening these previously isolated areas up to inward migration and exploitation for bushmeat and forest clearance.  

Impacts on water sources The railway currently being developed cuts across several important waterways, and communities have already reported that critical water streams have been polluted due to construction activity.  Pollution of water sources – as explained by a 2022 assessment of the WCS’s environmental and social impact assessment – could have devastating impacts, as the mining blocks cover over 100 km of mountains whose streams feed directly into the water of the Niger River, Africa’s third longest river and a critical water source across four West African countries. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the project’s impacts on water is necessary before it goes ahead.

Emergence of new infectious diseases Several studies suggest that large-scale industrial development projects, such as mining, can increase the risk of zoonotic disease transmission, which can lead to pandemics. A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) emphasises the importance of protecting biodiversity and natural ecosystems in preventing future pandemics. The report notes that the destruction of natural habitats, including deforestation, which often takes place in mining operations and is a risk associated with the Simandou project, can increase the likelihood of zoonotic disease transmission. Furthermore, the railway associated with the Simandou project cuts across an area that was the epicentre of the West Africa Ebola outbreak, which killed over 11,000 people between 2013-2016. This shows the concrete risks of pandemics and other widespread disease outbreaks in this area in Guinea.

Links to impacts at Boké bauxite mine WCS was set up by the same founders as the SMB Winning Consortium, a mining group that exploits the Boké bauxite mine in northwestern Guinea. This consortium has a disastrous track record of unremediated human rights impacts and disrespect of community land and environmental rights, as documented extensively in a 2018 Human Rights Watch report and a 2023 Natural Justice community audit. The pattern of negligence with respect to air quality, uncompensated or undercompensated taking of lands, and pollution of water sources already observed along the Simandou railway route - along with the lack of transparency and hesitation to engage substantively with affected communities - is strikingly similar to the criticisms of SMB’s record at Boké.