Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Republic of Guinea (represented by Minister of Mines Bouna Sylla and Minister of Finance), Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC, subsidiary of UAE's Emirates Global Aluminium), and EGA signed an amicable settlement on 6 May 2026, formally ending the 18-month dispute that followed Guinea's August 2025 revocation of GAC's Sangarédi bauxite concession. Key terms: (1) Guinea pays EGA/GAC an undisclosed lump-sum (~USD 300M widely reported but not officially confirmed) in exchange for the formal transfer of all Sangarédi project assets, mining rights, equipment, and operational contracts to state-owned Nimba Mining Company (NMC) — the concession transfer is not reversed; (2) NMC assumes responsibility for advancing the Sangarédi project, including the alumina refinery investment commitment that GAC failed to fulfil; (3) CBG–EGA and NMC–EGA bauxite supply arrangements are restored — CBG agreed to renew long-term supply contracts with EGA under mutually beneficial commercial terms, re-anchoring EGA's UAE alumina refinery feedstock (~2.6 Mt/yr alumina output dependent on Guinea bauxite); (4) the settlement definitively terminates all disputes arising from the October 2024 export suspension, the August 2025 presidential decree revocation, and any CBG-related supply interruptions. EGA had taken a USD 680m write-down in 2025 following the original revocation. No formal Journal Officiel decree identified; settlement announced via EGA joint press release co-signed by both Guinea ministers.

On 4 February 2026, in Washington, DC, Guinea's Minister of Mines and Geology Bouna Sylla and US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg signed an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on critical-mineral supply chains, covering exploration, extraction, processing, and downstream investment. The MoU was one of eleven founding-member bilateral instruments signed simultaneously at the inaugural FORGE (Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement) Critical Minerals Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Guinea holds approximately 26% of global bauxite reserves (~3.7bn tonnes) and is the world's largest bauxite exporter and #2 alumina exporter, making it the choke-point upstream node for any non-Chinese aluminium value chain.

President Mamadi Doumbouya signed two decrees on 5 August 2025 revoking Guinea Alumina Corporation's (GAC, a subsidiary of UAE's Emirates Global Aluminium) 690.20 km² bauxite mining concession in Boké Prefecture — citing GAC's non-compliance with article 88 of the October 2004 base convention requiring an alumina refinery development plan under the Simandou 2040 processing mandate. The concession was transferred without compensation to newly created 100%-Guinean state entity Nimba Mining Company SA (NMC), which received a 25-year mining title with a one-year deadline to commence operations. All technical reports and geological data (~400 Mt resource) were transferred to the State without indemnification.

Guinea's Mines Minister Bouna Sylla announced on 26 May 2025 the cancellation of 129 exploration permits for gold, bauxite, and diamonds that had expired between 2012 and 2024 and were held by non-compliant companies that had not fulfilled their statutory obligations. The measure is the fourth wave of post-coup mining cadastre cleanup under the CNRD/Doumbouya administration and follows two presidential decrees and a prior ministerial ordinance. Major affected operators include AngloGold Ashanti's Siguiri gold-mine exploration blocks, four gold permits held by Endeavour Mining, and Guinea Alumina Corporation's Nomba bauxite block; Axis International separately filed a USD 28.9 billion ICSID arbitration claim over bauxite-permit revocation in the same wave.

UAE Cabinet Decision No. 142 of 2024, announced 9 December 2024 and formally gazetted 11 February 2025, introduces a Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT) on UAE constituent entities of Multinational Enterprise (MNE) groups with consolidated annual revenues ≥ EUR 750 million in at least two of the four preceding fiscal years. The DMTT ensures a 15% minimum effective tax rate (ETR) on UAE-source profits, functioning as a Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) under the OECD/G20 Pillar Two GloBE framework, thereby giving the UAE first-priority taxing right before any IIR top-up by a parent-jurisdiction authority. The measure applies to fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. The UAE deliberately excluded the Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and Under-Taxed Profits Rule (UTPR) from this primary instrument, deferring those to subsequent Cabinet Decisions; the QDMTT-only architecture mirrors Singapore's MEMTA and Switzerland's MindStV as the first-mover design choice for established low-tax financial hubs.

Guinean customs authorities suspended bauxite exports from Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC, a subsidiary of UAE's Emirates Global Aluminium) on 11 October 2024, following unresolved disputes over GAC's non-compliance with its base convention's alumina refinery-development obligation. EGA said it was "seeking clarity from customs on the reason for this action." The suspension cut GAC's annual bauxite exports from 14.1 million wet metric tonnes in 2023 to 10.8 million wet metric tonnes in 2024 and forced EGA to record a AED 1.8 billion ($488 million) impairment on GAC's book value. The suspension was the opening move in a sequence that escalated to full concession revocation in August 2025 and was formally resolved by an amicable settlement in May 2026.

On 22 March 2021, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched Operation 300bn at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi — a 10-year national industrial strategy delivered by the newly created Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT, established July 2020). The strategy targets raising the industrial sector's annual GDP contribution from AED 133bn (~USD 36bn) to AED 300bn (~USD 82bn) by 2031, lifting R&D spend from AED 21bn to AED 57bn (1.3% → 2% of GDP), and supporting more than 13,500 industrial SMEs through an AED 30bn (~USD 8.2bn) Emirates Development Bank (EDB) financing portfolio. Eleven priority sub-sectors are organised into three baskets: Stimulating Growth (food/beverage, pharmaceuticals, electrical equipment), Advanced Manufacturing (petrochemicals, rubber/plastics, machinery), and Industries of the Future (hydrogen, medical technology, space technology).