ASI’s learning platform registers a six-fold increase in Guinea-based learner enrolments in 2021

27 January 2022

Data & Research Insights – January 2022

Driven by ASI efforts to engage stakeholders from Guinea (the second largest bauxite producing nation in the world, ASI’s learning platform, educationAl, recorded a significant increase in learners from Guinea and the African region as a whole in the second half of 2021.

Between July and December 2021, a fifth of new users enrolling on the ASI educationAl platform were from Africa, half of whom are based in Guinea.

Over the period, 15 new users from Guinea registered on educationAl – ASI’s online learning platform – compared to just two in the previous six months, while 26 new users registered from Africa as a whole, more than doubling new registrations from the region in the first half of 2021. This brings the total number of Africa-based educationAl users to 37.

This important growth aligns with ASI’s strategy to enable and increase stakeholder participation from this bauxite-rich country through:

• translating online training materials into French,
• expanding the pool of local Registered Specialists through targeted outreach,
• publishing an online course on the globalisation of the Guinean bauxite mining industry, and
• providing simultaneous translation in French during relevant Standards Committee meetings for Indigenous Peoples Advisory Forum (IPAF) members in Guinea, as well as regular IPAF meetings.

ASI welcomes this timely increase in engagement from stakeholders in Guinea, which will serve to facilitate the likely start of certification audits in the country during 2022-2023. Members with operations in Guinea include Compagnie des Bauxites des Guinee (CBG) (with Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Dadco invested through a consortium), Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), UC Rusal and China Hongqiao Group Co., Ltd.

We hope that Guinean stakeholders will continue to engage with the learning materials on the educationAl platform that explore the wide range of sustainability issues that are addressed in ASI Standards, not only regarding bauxite mining, but along the entire aluminium value chain.

Further, we encourage all ASI stakeholders to learn more about the local contexts of bauxite mining in Guinea via the learning module “The globalisation of the Guinean bauxite mining industry” prepared by Dr. Penda Diallo, ASI Qualitative Research Manager.

Guinea is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of bauxite, and currently holds the largest proven bauxite reserves globally. As such, the reach of Guinean bauxite throughout the aluminium supply chain is vast and widespread, and therefore an understanding of the environmental, social and governance issues relating specifically to Guinean bauxite will be critical for ASI Members to achieve their due diligence obligations.

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