The United States is pleased to announce a partnership with the Government of Guinea to strengthen transparency and good governance in Guinea’s extractive industries sector. Guinea is blessed with significant mineral resources, many of which remain undiscovered or undeveloped. It is the world’s largest producer of bauxite (used to make aluminum), and is set to become the third largest source of iron ore. Additional mineral resources include: gold, diamonds, graphite, manganese, nickel, and uranium. Guinea’s mining sector alone generates a significant percentage of all export earnings, and 17 percent of GDP, making transparency and good governance of the mining sector a critical goal to ensure these resources are used to develop the country, strengthen the economy, and lift its citizens out of poverty.

The United States applauds Guinea’s commitment to extractives transparency, including the government’s decision to publicly post current and future mining contracts. The United States looks forward to partnering with Guinea and working closely with civil society and industry to further expand transparency efforts and support good governance in the extractive industries sector.

Several key outcomes of this partnership include:

• Ensuring more Guinean diamonds enter the legal chain of custody and are certified as conflict-free by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Guinea is an active Participant of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for rough diamonds, which aims to stem the flow of conflict diamonds and promote the legitimate trade in rough diamonds.  
• Working collaboratively with Guinean Government and civil society to assess Guinea’s diamond production capacity in order to better understand the production capacity of this resource and minimize the risks of smuggling.  
• Working with Guinean partners in government and civil society to achieve compliant status under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) by 2014. Guinea is currently an EITI candidate country. EITI is a voluntary, global initiative in which extractives sector payments made by companies and received by governments are publicly disclosed and reconciled. The initiative is designed to increase transparency, strengthen the accountability of natural resource revenue management, and build public trust in the governance of this important sector.

Revenue Watch recently ranked Guinea 33 out of 58 extractives countries in its Resource Governance Index, recognizing the need to continue to improve Guinea's reporting practices, safeguards and quality controls, and enabling environment. This puts Guinea in an excellent position to take the next steps towards improved extractives sector governance overall.

Good governance and transparency in the extractives sector is a key priority for the G-8 this year, and this partnership represents a key outcome of the United Kingdom’s leadership on this issue. Robert D. Hormats, the Under Secretary of State for Economics, Energy, and the Environment will travel to London, England on June 15, 2013 to announce the Partnership with Guinean President Alpha Conde.

For more information please see link to partnership document in English and French: http://www.state.gov/e/enr/rls/ot/210631.htm