Land acquisition and displacement Hundreds of people have been displaced during construction of this project. Local communities, especially women, have been evicted without proper consultation to make space for Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS)'s living quarters in Block 1 and 2. In addition, the railway passes through a territory that is home to at least 450 communities. ​​Several impacted community members have expressed concerns about the obstacles they face in negotiating equitable compensation, with many reporting under-compensation or outright theft of their homes and agricultural lands. Article One’s 2024 human rights report, commissioned by SimFer, highlights how the current cash compensation endangers financial security as it can be  spent on items with lower economic return, rather than replacement land. 

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This map shows communities within a 5 km buffer zone along the cleared Simandou railroad (546 km of 650 km cleared to date) and in close proximity to the Simandou mining blocks.

Photo: EarthInsight

Impacts on livelihoods WCS' environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) (1) warns that deforestation and land loss associated with the construction risk impacting activities that are critical for communities’ food security. Coastal communities living near the Simandou port have denounced the complete devastation of their livelihoods, as port construction and vehicle traffic have driven away fish populations and blocked access to productive fishing grounds. Communities in Blocks 1 and 2 have also been heavily impacted, as noise pollution from machinery has driven away usual wildlife, creating scarce hunting conditions. These communities have also reported decreased agricultural yields from the dumping of the project’s laterite soil and mud near cultivation areas. Further, dust inhaled from the site threatens health, especially for children, the elderly, and the infirm. Article One’s report also lists further impacts arising from project-induced migration, whereby an influx to the project area has created a shortage of accommodation and increased healthcare and education costs.

Ineffective accountability mechanisms WCS’s grievance mechanism has delivered poor outcomes. Of 29 cases supported by Action Mines Guinée between August 2023 and September 2024, none were resolved on time, 8 were rejected, 6 under-compensated, and 11 still under review. Article One's assessment of SimFer’s process also found low community awareness and limited resolution of complaints. 

Impacts on civic space Guinea's civic space, including threats to freedom of association and expression, is classified as “repressed” in the CIVICUS 2024 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 railway has the potential to impact over 100 cultural and spiritual sites, like sacred sites, graves, and cemeteries. According to Simfer’s 2024 ESIA, the conglomerate has set up a Cultural Heritage Management Plan to manage cultural sites found in the project area. This plan includes avoiding the sites wherever possible, and if not, consulting communities on relocation or compensation. However, Article One’s assessment relays concerns by rightsholders on the pace of compensation. The report also stresses the ongoing impacts in the Pic de Fon Forest mining zone, including the destruction of burial sites.

Unsafe working conditions and fatalities Since June 2023, 13 workers have died during port and railway construction; none publicly reported. These unusually high fatalities raise concerns that safety is being sidelined, after Rio Tinto’s push to bring forward iron ore production from 2026 to late 2025. Reuters reviewed reports of over 40 undisclosed accidents. Both companies' officials and a safety audit by French firm Artelia cited poor safety and health conditions. In 10 cases, families of the dead or injured signed waivers exempting WCS from liability, an uncommon practice in industrial settings.

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 26-year anticipated lifetime of the mine, which is equal to about 41% of Guinea’s total emissions in 2020 and 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. Beyond the environmental impact of the project construction fuel use, Rio Tinto Simfer’s ESIA report estimates that 94.7% of the emissions will come from the actual operation of the mine (mining, ore handling, and rail and port operation).

Impacts on biodiversity and wildlife Guinea has been facing rapid rates of deforestation, with the Nzérékoré region – where the Simandou project is located – having experienced the highest rate of deforestation in the country between 2002 and 2024. 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. 

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This map aims to illustrate the large scale threats to Chimpanzees in Guinea posed by the development of the Simandou mining complex and the associated railroad development. The map shows the modeled density of Chimpanzees according to Heinicke et al., 2019. Heinicke et al. (2019) caution that “Modeled estimates are associated with uncertainties due to the possibility of missing predictors, and differences in spatial scale of different predictor datasets. Uncertainties are more pronounced for areas with fewer data and those that differ strongly from surveyed areas regarding predictor space coverage.” Bright red areas on the map have high likelihoods of Chimpanzees, though due to the methods used, may not be a perfect indicator. Due to lack of systematic studies of their distribution, it is thought that there may be an under-representation on the Guinean side of the border, especially surrounding the proposed Pinselli, Soyah and Sabouyah national park. The railroad development in the PPS area (see next map) is of particular concern.

Photo: EarthInsight

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.  

Simfer’s mining zone includes the Pic de Fon Classified Forest, which is home to critical chimpanzee populations; while Simfer acknowledges that it plans to mine in the Pic de Fon, it has declined to include the area in its current environmental and social impact assessment and has instead indicated the need for a supplementary assessment before operations begin in the forest.

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This map shows the potential threat to protected areas based on proximity to the railroad and mining areas. Protected areas were derived from the WDPA database and includes all IUCN classes. Red areas indicate protected areas at risk of impacts of the railroad development and mining activities, while the lighter red/pink indicates provisional limits of the Pinselli, Soyah and Sabouyah (PPS) combined protected area. Background layers represent important conservation values such as other protected areas (light green), Key Biodiversity Areas (darker green) and biodiversity hotspots (purple).

Photo: EarthInsight

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This satellite map shows the outline of the proposed Pinselli, Soyah and Sabouyah national park on the border with Sierra Leone, which is thought to be an important landscape for the conservation of primates (Chimpanzees and other species), African Forest Elephants, White-Backed Vultures, and other species (WCF, 2023, Rainforest Trust, 2023). The black line indicates the pathway of the Simandou railroad which was cleared between approximately early 2021 and April 2023 (derived from NICFI data, Planet.com). Orange segments indicate tunnels, which are currently under construction and require extensive blasting efforts. Yellow lines indicate the access roads that were created through the landscape, which extend well beyond the limits outlined in the Project Environmental Impact Assessment.

Photo: EarthInsight

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.   Reported cases  include the pollution of watercourses by pipeline water at the Sekoussoriyah tunnel (Kindia region), pollution of the Balin stream at Oure Kaba (Mamou region), pollution of springs (Warada and Namba) by drilling work at Damaro (Kérouané region), and drainage of mud and sand into the Karako-Konsankoro stream bed (Kérouané region). Additionally, the Simandou mining project will release heavy metals, posing a threat to the health of nearby communities and endangering aquatic ecosystems. According to the project's environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), there is a high probability that toxic effluents will be produced near the region's major rivers, notably the Dion, Milo and Diani. Pollution of water sources – as explained by a 2022 assessment of the WCS’s ESIAenvironmental 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. Simfer’s own ESIA notes that its operations will cause major, long-term reductions on ground and surface water sources in the area that cannot be adequately mitigated. 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.

Lawsuits Several communities and individuals have filed grievances with WCS and Simfer, asking for resolution of complaints related to water contamination, land loss, improper compensation, damage to homes, and livelihoods impacts.  Most of these complaints are still pending.  In addition, a group of affected communities filed a petition in July 2024, requesting the suspension of WCS’s environmental clearance certificate due to WCS’s deplorable environmental record, its failure to properly consult local populations, and its violation of various international obligations of the Republic of Guinea, including climate change and biodiversity commitments and fundamental principles of international environmental law such as the precautionary principle.