Guinea's CBG has halted bauxite exports after a conveyor belt at the port of Conakry was damaged, sources at the company told Reuters on Wednesday.
CBG, a venture between Alcoa , Rio Tinto and the Guinean government, is the world's top exporter of bauxite, shipping more than 13.5 million tonnes per year.
Exports were halted three days ago, and it remained unclear when the conveyor belt would be fixed to allow shipments to resume, the sources said.
"The conveyor (...) was ripped by an iron bar and this has halted the movement of bauxite. Everything has been stopped for three days," said one of the sources.
"For the moment, we don't know when the damage will be fixed. They are trying to repair it with staples to temporarily fix the problem, until when the machine will most likely have to be changed," he said.
Another CBG source said the company was investigating the possibility that the damage was caused intentionally. No CBG official was immediately available to comment on the record.
CBG exported a record 13.7 million tonnes of the aluminum ore bauxite in 2008, the latest year for which data is available. The company is 51 percent owned by Halco Mining, a joint venture between Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Dadco Mining. The other 49 percent is owned by Guinea's government.
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