La Compagnie du TransGuinéen (CTG): Full Company Description
La Compagnie du TransGuinéen (CTG) is a landmark joint venture established to serve as the operational and infrastructural backbone of Guinea's Simandou iron ore project — one of the largest and most strategically significant mining developments in the world. Born out of years of complex multi-party negotiations, CTG was created to resolve longstanding infrastructure gridlock by consolidating the logistics requirements of competing mining consortiums under a single, unified corporate framework. Its mandate extends beyond the purely commercial, encompassing national development goals, regional economic integration, and the long-term transformation of Guinea's transport landscape.
Ownership and Governance Structure
CTG is structured as a Société Anonyme (S.A.) registered under the laws of the Republic of Guinea and governed by the harmonized business law framework of the OHADA (Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa). This legal foundation ensures international-standard corporate governance, robust dispute resolution mechanisms, and strong protections for all foreign and domestic investors involved.
The equity structure reflects a carefully balanced public-private partnership. The Guinean State holds a 15% non-dilutive, free-carry stake, meaning it contributes no upfront capital yet cannot be diluted by future share issuances — a powerful sovereignty safeguard. The remaining 85% is split equally between two private infrastructure intermediaries: Simfer Infraco, representing Simandou Blocks 3 and 4 (Simandou South) and jointly owned by Rio Tinto and Chinalco (Chalco Iron Ore Holdings), holds 42.5%; and WCS Infraco, representing Simandou Blocks 1 and 2 (Simandou North) and backed by the Winning Consortium Simandou and China Baowu Steel Group, the world's largest steelmaker, holds the remaining 42.5%.
To prevent either private consortium from monopolizing control of the corridor, CTG's bylaws incorporate strict governance safeguards. The Chairman of the Board (Président du Conseil d'Administration) must be a Guinean national nominated directly by the State, and the Deputy CEO (Directeur Général Adjoint) must similarly be state-appointed. Major decisions — including capital allocation, infrastructure expansions, technical design modifications, and third-party tariff structures — require unanimous board approval, ensuring that no single shareholder can override the others. The State also retains powerful forfeiture clauses: should private partners breach execution timelines, local content obligations, or ESG compliance frameworks, Guinea holds the legal right to trigger concession-revocation proceedings.
Infrastructure Assets
CTG's core mandate is to develop, finance, and manage two transformative infrastructure assets that together form the TransGuinéen Corridor.
The first and most ambitious is the TransGuinéen Railway, a brand-new, heavy-haul rail line stretching over 600 kilometers (620–650 km depending on final alignment) across all four natural regions of Guinea. Beginning in the mountainous, jungle-clad southeastern interior near the Simandou Range and terminating on the country's southwestern Atlantic coastline, this railway represents the longest and most technically challenging rail project ever constructed in West Africa. It is engineered specifically to carry millions of tons of dense iron ore at high frequency, navigating steep gradients and challenging terrain that required custom-built rolling stock.
The second core asset is the Morebaya Port, a state-of-the-art deep-water mineral terminal located in the Forécariah prefecture on Guinea's southwest coast. Engineered to accommodate massive Capesize bulk carriers — among the largest ore-hauling vessels in global maritime trade — the port is the critical final link in the export chain, transforming landlocked mineral wealth into globally traded commodities.
Multi-User Mandate
A defining and legally binding feature of CTG's corporate charter is its multi-user designation. Unlike a typical captive mining railway, the TransGuinéen is explicitly required by its Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concession agreement to reserve capacity for broader economic actors. This includes scheduled passenger rail services connecting isolated southeastern communities to western urban centers, agricultural freight containers enabling Guinea's rural farming regions to access coastal shipping markets, and regulated commercial access for smaller, non-shareholder mining operations near the corridor. This multi-user model transforms CTG from a pure industrial logistics operator into a genuine national development vehicle, aligning private infrastructure investment with Guinea's broader socioeconomic ambitions.
Leadership
CTG's executive team reflects its multi-stakeholder character. Mamadou Nagnalen Barry, a former Guinean Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, serves as Chairman of the Board, acting as the strategic bridge between the company's commercial objectives and national priorities — including the government's push for domestic steel processing. Dr. Moussa Bérété, formerly Director General of AGEROUTE, Guinea's national road infrastructure agency, serves as Deputy CEO, overseeing the practicalities of the ongoing railway and port construction programs. At the strategic oversight level, Djiba Diakité chairs the Presidential Strategic Committee for the Simandou Project, guiding macro-level negotiations and financing milestones from the Presidency of the Republic.
Operational Progress and Key Milestones
CTG has advanced rapidly since its founding agreements were signed in August 2023 in Conakry, which formally established the legal and financial architecture of the joint venture. In July 2024, Simfer placed a $277 million rolling stock order with American manufacturer Wabtec Corporation, followed in January 2025 by a $248 million complementary order from WCS, bringing the total fleet investment to over $530 million for 78 custom heavy-haul locomotives. In May 2025, Guinea's state delegation officially received and ceremonially named the first two locomotives — "KÔMA" and "SANFINA" — at an unveiling event in India. By October 2025, the first physical batch of CTG locomotives arrived at Morebaya Port. In November 2025, the project crossed a historic threshold when the first commissioning ore trains successfully transported high-grade iron ore stockpiles from the mountain mines down to the Atlantic coast.
Safety has been a parallel priority throughout this construction phase, with CTG completing over 95% of physical safety fencing along the entire railway footprint to protect rural communities and livestock from the high-speed heavy-haul corridor.
Future Targets and Economic Impact
Looking ahead, CTG is targeting the delivery of 10 to 12 multi-use passenger and freight railway stations by late 2026, after which public transport and agricultural freight services will formally launch. Full commissioning of Simfer's dedicated port facilities is scheduled for 2027, and by 2028 the entire corridor is engineered to reach its design capacity of 120 million tons of iron ore exports annually — split equally between the northern and southern mining blocks.
The macroeconomic implications are profound. IMF projections estimate that the export velocity and logistics transformation enabled by the CTG corridor will expand Guinea's total GDP by an estimated 26% by 2030, making CTG not merely a mining infrastructure company, but a cornerstone of Guinea's national economic future.