(Dakar, January 12, 2026) — An unpublished environmental impact study obtained by Climate Rights International concludes that a massive iron ore project in the Nimba Mountains in Guinea could have major negative environmental, climate, and human impacts, Climate Rights International said today. The Guinean government should not give final approval for the project to start unless Ivanhoe Atlantic, the majority owner of the project, agrees to supervised implementation of mitigation measures that fully safeguard the irreplaceable biodiversity of the Nimba Mountains and protect the rights of affected communities, including the measures recommended in the study.
According to the analysis carried out by an environmental consulting firm, the project has the potential to significantly impact the local climate and threaten micro-endemic species. The study, which still has to be approved by the Guinean authoritiesstates that preventing these environmental harms will be “a real ecological challenge that will require very substantial human, technical, and financial resources… Without a detailed and operational Biodiversity Action Plan, the project would generate unacceptable impacts on the biodiversity of Mount Nimba and on the site’s Outstanding Universal Values as a UNESCO World Heritage property.”
On October 23, the project’s majority owner, Ivanhoe Atlantic, announced it had completed its environmental and social impact studies and that it aims to begin its “construction activities” in the first quarter of 2026.
“The Nimba iron ore project presents serious environmental and social risks that will be difficult to mitigate,” said Fabien Offner, researcher at Climate Rights International. “The neighboring Simandou iron ore megaproject is already reported to be causing numerous violations of community rights and serious harm to biodiversity. The current rush for iron, as it is being pursued today, risks causing irreversible long-term consequences.”
The Nimba Mountain range, which rises to nearly 1,800 meters, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981—the only one in Guinea— because its “unique geographical and climatic location combined with its biogeographical background, provides one of the most remarkable diversities of the whole West African region.” The natural barrier formed by the mountains creates a humid microclimate vital for health of the surrounding forests. The site was classified as endangered in 1992 by UNESCO.
Ivanhoe Atlantic, a privately-held U.S. company, is one of several companies that received a permit to explore for and mine iron ore on Mount Nimba, after years of delays and a military takeover by the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development (CNRD), which overthrew President Alpha Condé in September 2021 amid a regime crisis marked by severe human rights abuses. The concession covers a 1,550-hectare zone (a 625-hectare concession and a 925-hectare mining perimeter) that was removed from the heart of the World Heritage Site by a 2010 decree.
With this project, named Kon Kweni (“iron stones” in the Kono language), the company plans to extract 750 million tons of iron, through its subsidiary Société des Mines de Fer de Guinée (SMFG). SMFG owns 85% of the project, the Guinea government 10%, and another private company, Mifergui Nimba, owns 5%.
According to the study, the project also has the potential to undermine food security and the local economy, because mining infrastructure will reduce or eliminate farmland in the villages of Gbakoré, Zouguepo, Bossou Centre, Seringbara, and Thuo. The loss of arable land and pastures will increase land pressure in the same prefecture where there have been deadly conflicts between herders and farmers. A possible influx of workers in search of employment at the mines will further increase that pressure, said the study.
Three other mining concessions in the area will add to the projected impact if they move forward, a factor discussed in the study. A 2,280 hectare concession in the buffer zone adjacent to the World Heritage Site will likely be exploited by Nimba Development Company (NDC), with the Government of Guinea holding 15% of the shares of the project. In October 2024, the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) published an independent opinion on the terms of reference for the NDC project’s EIA, at the request of the Guinean Agency for Environmental Assessment (AGEE). NCEA identified numerous shortcomings in the terms of reference, including the failure to include “an assessment of potential greenhouse gas emissions resulting from urbanization, deforestation, and the use of fossil fuels,” and the fact that “the villages affected by the project are not presented.”
Australian Equatorial Resources Limited acquired the Nimba Alliance exploration permits for the so-called Nimba North (10,700 hectares) and Nimba West (19,800 hectares) sites. The latter is located partly inside the World Heritage Site, with the rest in the buffer zone. In 2025 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee expressed “its deep concern that the Nimba West permit acquired by ERL covers a significant part of the Guinean component of the property”.
Finally, the Canadian-owned company Sama Resources had until recently been exploring for graphite near the World Heritage-listed perimeter.
The leaked study assesses the cumulative impact of the projects mentioned above on “land” and on “vulnerability and social cohesion” as “major,” particularly due to the risk of economic displacements and uncoordinated relocations among the different projects, as well as the possible variations in compensation scales.
The climate impacts of the Ivanhoe project will be significant. Of the net loss of 1,790 hectares of land, 485 hectares will be forest, including 70 hectares of montane and submontane primary forest. 1,000,000 tCO₂e will be emitted during the start-up and planned 10-year operation phase. That is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ captured in one year by a tropical forest covering the total land and sea area of New York City. The study goes on to say that, “[t]hese emissions, combined with existing climate pressures, threaten resilience [of] micro-endemic species of Mount Nimba, which are particularly sensitive to climatic variations… [and of] local populations whose agricultural and economic activities depend on a stable climate…The impact is negative and direct, with high intensity, recurring frequency, and partially reversible. Its significance is considered Major.”
According to the study, local residents fear that the Ivanhoe project will “exacerbate the changes already observed by communities in the climate,” with harmful consequences for agricultural yields.
The study also raises concerns about potential negative impacts on water resources from the Ivanhoe project, including a local lowering of the water table and increased surface runoff due to soil erosion. This may also contribute to reduced water availability and changes in the seasonal flow patterns of rivers. Populations of “rare, endemic species strictly adapted to lowland and montane savannas will be particularly exposed.” Among other impacts, the construction of a road with an estimated 40-meter-wide corridor will cause “loss of habitat for chimpanzees directly and indirectly through an increased edge effect.”
These assessed impacts relate to only Phase 1 of the Kon Kweni project, expected to start at two million tons of iron ore a year, with scope to ramp up to five million. According to Ivanhoe, Phase 2 will “deliver a large scale, long life, globally significant operation, producing 25-30 millions tons a year.” The final phase will establish the Lola Processing Hub, intended to process the ore on site.
The Kon Kweni ore mined from Mount Nimba by Ivanhoe is expected to be exported through neighbouring Liberia, thanks to an agreement signed by both countries in 2021. On December 18, 2025, the Liberian Parliament ratified the Concession and Access Agreement signed on July 5 by the government and the company, opening a corridor for iron ore from Kon Kweni to the Atlantic via the Yekepa–Buchanan railway, which until now had been used exclusively by ArcelorMittal.
Despite the significant risks it poses to the climate, biodiversity, and local communities, Kon Kweni appears to be supported by the Guinean authorities, which own 10% of the project. On April 7, Guinean Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah received a delegation from SMFG, the Ivanhoe subsidiary in Guinea that owns 85% of the project.
In its 2025 newly submitted Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Guinea has set as an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% for electricity production by 2035, by 20% for transport, and by 20% for industry and mining. The authorities are relying on seven objectives for this, including that of “halting deforestation by promoting sustainable forest management and expanding the network of protected areas”.
According to Global Forest Watch, from 2001 to 2024, Guinea lost 2.3 million hectares of tree cover, equivalent to 28% of the 2000 tree cover area, releasing 1.1 Gt of CO₂e emissions.
“The Guinean authorities claim they have great ambitions in the fight against climate change,” said Offner. “Allowing this project to proceed without ensuring that it does not damage the country’s only World Heritage site would be difficult to reconcile with those ambitions.”
Photo Credit: Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve. © UNESCO, Author: Guy Debonnet.
