"The trend of ambition is far-reaching, and the poor mountains are far away from the sea, and there is no limit. "From Binzhou in China to Guinea in Africa, separated by thousands of rivers and mountains, thousands of miles away, but the pioneers of the "Belt and Road" continue to create miracles in Guinea with wisdom and courage.
On November 16, 2015, the 12,000-nautical-mile "Maritime Aluminum Silk Road" from Guinea arrived at Yantai Port in China for the first time, and finally entered the alumina production workshop of Binzhou Weiqiao Venture Group through transshipment, and the ore mining and transportation volume of this year was 1 million tons. In 2018, the reporter went to Guinea for interviews, and was shocked to feel the subversion of the traditional Guinean mining development model by the "three countries and four parties" cooperation, and the bauxite mining and transportation volume this year was 40 million tons. Another five years later, in 2023, the reporter went to Guinea again to cover that a railway "dragon" has stretched the "Maritime Aluminum Silk Road" and penetrated deep into the mining area, and it is expected that the bauxite mining and transportation volume will reach 55 million tons this year.
Photo/Dasheng Railway is the first modern railway in Guinea in nearly half a century, which was designed and built entirely by China
This railway is the first modern railway in Guinea in the past half century, which is completely designed and built by China in the past half century, which has opened up a new strategic supply channel for China's aluminum industry, and got rid of the dependence on the resources of a few resource-rich countries; has built a two-way logistics channel, exported Chinese manufacturing, Chinese standards and Chinese technology; and explored a unique model of mutual benefit and win-win and pragmatic cooperation between people from different countries, different ownerships, different industries and different nationalities.
Chinese standards, Chinese technology and Chinese equipment have built Guinea's first modern railway in half a century
Since the development of the aluminum industry by Weiqiao Venture Group, the main source of bauxite is Indonesia. Since January 2014, the country has officially banned the export of unprocessed and smelted bauxite. The move forced Weiqiao to look for new, larger sources. Guinea, the world's largest bauxite reserve, has become the goal of Weiqiao's efforts. In 2014, when the Ebola virus was rampant in Guinea, many foreign investors abandoned it, but Weiqiao Venture Group and its partners rose to the challenge, and their sincerity and feasibility plan impressed the president and key government leaders of Guinea at that time. The Guinean side agreed to win the alliance to mine minerals in the country and export them to China.
Winning Alliance is a community with a shared future of "three countries and four parties", and its members are the end users of China Weiqiao Venture Group and need reliable supply of bauxite resources; China Yantai Port Group needs to expand port cargo sources and respond to the "Belt and Road" initiative to build ports abroad; Singapore Winning International Group, as a comprehensive shipping group, needs a stable supply of transportation goods; and Guinea's UMS company carries out local bauxite business for automobile transportation. Driven by the efficiency of Weiqiao Venture Group, the fast transportation channel of Win Alliance Bauxite was quickly completed in only 45 days: starting from the mine, passing through road transportation, river port terminals, offshore floating crane loading, marine logistics, all the way to China. Zhang Bo, chairman of Weiqiao Venture Group, recalled: "The first ship of bauxite that arrived in Weiqiao from Guinea in 2015 was of extremely low grade, which was much lower than the lower limit of ore we requires, and was mixed with other high-grade bauxite. The significance of the first ship is to show the world that we can transport bauxite from Guinea to China in large quantities!"
From 2014, when the Winning Alliance entered Guinea, this cooperation model continued until 2018.
At the end of 2017, 31.5 million tons of ore were produced by the Alliance, and the business growth rate exceeded the original expectation. At the same time, in view of the huge demand for Guinean bauxite in the Chinese market, Win-Alliance continues to explore and develop new mining areas. The new Santu mining area is located in the northwest corner of Guinea, with large ore reserves and high grade, because it is located in the middle of the mountain ravine, and the traffic problem has become the number one obstacle hindering the development of the Santu mining area. The initial idea of seeking to reduce the cost of bauxite transportation and build rail transportation was generated within the winning alliance, and actively worked with the Guinean government to win it. In July 2018, the Winning Alliance Guinea Railway Company was established, and on November 26 of that year, the Winning Alliance Railway was approved by the Guinean government and the project was approved.
Photo/Win Alliance Commander-in-Chief Sun Xiushun (middle) directs the construction of the Dasheng Railway
From the groundbreaking of the Dasheng Railway in March 2019 to the smooth opening of traffic on June 16, 2021, all those who have experienced this period have indelible memories. The epidemic has affected the whole world and brought many difficulties to the construction of the Dasheng Railway. Wave after wave of epidemic recurrence has been accompanied by the process of railway construction. Under the strong command of Sun Xiushun, the commander-in-chief of the winning alliance, all the builders grasped the prevention and control while focusing on the construction, built bridges and laid tracks on the wasteland, and rushed to build the construction period in the mud of the rainy season, and finally built the first modern railway in Guinea since the 70s of the 20th century, and all adopted Chinese standards, Chinese technology and Chinese equipment.
The 125-kilometer-long main line of the Dasheng Railway, which spans the Bokai and Bofa regions of Guinea, mainly serves the bauxite transportation in the Shengtu mining area of the Winning Alliance, and is also an important infrastructure for other bauxite enterprises along the way. The railway, with a design speed of 80 kilometers per hour, connects the Shengtu-Huda mining area with the port of Dabilon, with 21 bridges, 2 tunnels and 6 stations.
Railway and port capacity have been improved, and the bauxite shipped to China is expected to reach more than 60 million tons per year
The significance of the Dasheng Railway is multifaceted, and it plays a strong role in promoting the business development of the alliance, the economic development of Guinea, and the supply of bauxite in the Chinese market.
Photo/At the port of Dabilon, a ship loader loads bauxite onto a barge ready to be transported to a deep-sea anchorage
Chang Aisi, deputy director of administration of the Winning Alliance, vividly introduced to the reporter the mileage of the bauxite "ride" train all the way to the deep sea: the railway originates from the Shengtu mining area, loads the station in the mining area, and transports the bauxite to the train car through the belt system, through the Jindia and Bokai districts, and finally arrives at the port of Dabilon. At the unloading station at the port, the dumper system unloads the bauxite in the carriage to the belt system, which is then loaded by the ship loader to the barge, which then goes to the deep sea to transfer the large steamer. She said that the intelligent loading equipment and unloading equipment have greatly improved the capacity of the entire transportation system. Currently, there are 13 trains per day on the Dar Saint Railway.
Photo/The Port of Dabilon has become the most well-equipped port in the entire African region
The Winning Alliance has two port areas on the Noniz River in Guinea that are responsible for receiving and transshipment bauxite, namely the port area of Katuguma and the port area of Dabilon. At the end of August this year, the reporter came to a port in the Katuguma port area and saw that the infrastructure of the entire port has not changed significantly from five years ago. Under the comparison of the first port in the port area of Katuguma, and then to the second port in the port area of Billund, the reporter saw a very modern port: the port on the red earth under the blue sky and white clouds has no dust, and there are "behemoths" such as belt conveyors, dumpers, ship loaders, and door cranes as far as the eye can see. The current Port of Dabilon has become the most well-equipped port in the entire African region.
Yu Bing, General Manager of Bokai Port Operations from Yantai Port in China, said that as an ancillary project of the Dasheng Railway Project, Dabilon Port has undergone the first phase of expansion, including 2 sets of dumpers, 2 stackers and reclaimers, 2 ship loaders and a 7-kilometer belt conveyor system. Its main function is to load the bauxite transported by rail to the barge through the process of dumping, transportation, transshipment, storage, and loading.
The upgrading and transformation of a complete set of transportation system has greatly increased the throughput of Win-Alliance Port, with 40 million tons of bauxite throughput completed last year and 50 million tons planned to be completed this year.
In the sound of rumbling machinery, three berths in the second phase of the Dabilon port area are under construction, and the throughput is expected to increase by 15 million tons. In recent years, with the increase of Dasheng railway capacity and port throughput, the amount of bauxite shipped to Binzhou, China will reach more than 60 million tons!
Introduce Chinese technology demonstration and promotion, and build Guinea's agricultural economic corridor along the railway
Photo/Guinean women learn vegetable planting techniques for free at the Win Alliance Vegetable Base
"We want to build a modern railway, but also a multi-purpose railway, not only to pull out the mines, but also to transport agricultural products that cannot be transported from Guinea!" The young and energetic Chang Aisi was like a girl next door at first contact, but after a deep conversation, she was actually an "old expert" of the Guinean Railway. Every plan in the construction of the railway, every intersection along the way, she knows it clearly. She introduced the original intention of the winning alliance: "From the perspective of total cost, it has been using trucks to transport bauxite, which is the most economical way for the winning alliance, but the construction of the Dasheng railway according to the standard gauge is also for the development of Guinea, which can not only help Guinea develop its economy at the moment, but also form Guinea's own railway network with more railways in the future." ”
Guinea's agriculture is extremely weak, making it difficult for many people to even have enough food and clothing. Guinea does not lack land resources, manpower, planning and technology. To this end, the Winning Alliance reached a consensus with the Guinean government to enable the people to achieve self-sufficiency through the introduction of Chinese agricultural technology and the development of agricultural planting. In the plan of Sun Xiushun, the commander-in-chief of the winning alliance, "to help build a better future for Guinea, the Dasheng Railway will also become a continuous industrial and agricultural economic corridor." Under his leadership, the Alliance hired agronomists from China and built a demonstration base for vegetable and rice cultivation to promote agricultural development and women's employment in Guinea.
In 2018, Zhang Zhenwu, an agronomist from Shouguang, Shandong Province with rich experience in vegetable planting, came to Bokai District, Guinea, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the climatic conditions here are much better than those in China, and under his guidance, the 500-acre Winning Alliance vegetable base has taken root. The reporter walked through this base and found that it was exactly the same as China's vegetable garden, with cucumbers, eggplants, cabbage, etc., but the difference was that the fields were busy with local women wearing veils. Zhang Zhenwu said: "The vegetables in this base are needed to supply the employees of Yinglian Mining Company, and at the same time, in order to help the local development of agriculture, we let groups of local women come here to learn vegetable planting techniques for free." ”
"On September 10, a group of Guinean personnel will come to learn agricultural techniques. In addition to being responsible for the daily planting technical guidance of this base, Zhang Zhenwu is also busy "welcoming in" and "sending out". Every year, he will conduct technical training for several batches of door-to-door trainees, and will also lead the team to other regions for technical promotion.
Photo/Win Alliance helps Guinea improve rice planting technology (Photo by Jiang Bin, reporter of Dazhong Daily)
In addition, the Alliance has also cooperated with the Hunan Rice Planting Development Center to introduce Chinese rice planting technology to Guinea. A 12-hectare rice planting base in Bokai district has completed initial trials and will be widely replicated in the surrounding area.
Chang Aisi vividly introduced that up to now, the method of planting rice in Guinea is still to sow seeds, and there is no Chinese rice planting link; the local people have never seen the state of "full grains" of rice, and only a few hundred catties of rice can be harvested on one hectare. Under the guidance and demonstration of the Hunan Rice Planting and Development Center, the people of the cooperative community finally saw the appearance of "bent ears of rice and full grains". The goal of rice cultivation in this community is to challenge China's rice yield per mu!
In the next step, after large-scale promotion, the quantity, quality and yield of local rice cultivation will be greatly improved. Guinea's superior natural conditions, coupled with advanced Chinese agricultural technology, it is not far off to turn the Dasheng Railway into a green agricultural economic corridor!