The Simandou Project has a rich history that will resonate with future generations today and in the future. It is worth remembering that in the early 2000s, it represented the most ambitious prospect for high-quality iron ore mining in Guinea, with the goal of extracting the world's largest untapped deposit nestled in the Simandou mountains. It is also worth remembering that to bring this project to fruition—presented as the largest integrated iron ore mining project ever undertaken on the African continent, valued at over twenty billion dollars—the leaders of the time staked their honor and their place in history, with the firm intention of succeeding solely for the benefit of the Guinean people.

It is essentially this legacy of responsibility that President Mamadi Doumbouya and the Simandou strategic committee, led by the Minister and Chief of Staff to the President, Djiba Diakité, chose to assume in a surge of patriotism. Aware of the unspoken pact he had made with himself and with the Guinean people, President Mamadi Doumbouya gave the Guinean side a clear, firm, and unambiguous line. No temptation was to be tolerated, because what is being built transcends individual destinies and commits the future of an entire nation.

These guidelines were rigorously followed by Minister Djiba Diakité and the entire Simandou strategic committee, all the way up to the Ministry of Mines. No financial transaction related to the project was to escape the traceability requirements stipulated by the mining code and international standards, requirements that President Mamadi Doumbouya has always placed at the heart of his governance.

When the global giant China Baowu Steel Group joined the project with a $99 million membership fee, becoming a member of the Winning Consortium Simandou, it was understandable that this contribution would not be immediately absorbed by the state until all the conditions for launching the megaproject were firmly in place. Baowu Resources and its partner WCS therefore injected their entire investment, including the $99 million, directly into the holding companies and project companies responsible for the infrastructure, to ensure immediate, secure financing dedicated entirely to the work.

More precisely, this sum was not allocated to the public treasury but used as a direct contribution to the execution of the works. The Guinean authorities had chosen not to accept any funds entering public accounts before the project became fully operational, in other words, before the first tonnage of iron ore traveled by rail from the Simandou mountains to the deep-water port of Morébaya, bound for China. This objective was achieved on November 11, 2025, during a solemn ceremony.

Baowu, committed to management in accordance with the transparency rules imposed by the stock exchange and the authorities of his country, then formally requested that the Guinean government specify the public treasury account to which the ninety-nine million dollars should be transferred. From that moment on, the initiative rested with the Guinean side, which simply needed to provide the bank details for the payment to be made.

The Simandou strategic committee focused its efforts on the project's success, but as is often the case in the country's history, political considerations disrupted an otherwise clear momentum. Some claimed that the $99 million had been embezzled, as if such a maneuver were still plausible in a world where financial flows are constantly scrutinized by international regulators and investors. To imagine that a publicly traded global company would accept such a risky maneuver is political posturing that no one should take seriously anymore.

Those who promote the fanciful idea of embezzlement seem to believe that the world still lives in the era of hiding suitcases under desks. They forget that every transaction today leaves an indelible digital footprint that even the most audacious political adventurers cannot erase. To persist in imagining the unimaginable in a world saturated with international controls is to confuse fiction with reality, which illustrates once again how certain controversies are less about reflection and more about pure entertainment.