Thunderclap in the Guinean bauxite sector. The Société des Bauxites de Guinée (SBG), a subsidiary of the sprawling conglomerate Monaco Resources Group – now renamed Sonel Investment – has lost its mining license. This decision, which occurred in mid-June against a backdrop of civil and criminal disputes, coincides, by pure chance or geopolitical synchrony, with the Principality of Monaco being blacklisted by the European Union, following the tightening of the FATF on money laundering.
Based on the Rock, Sonel Investment presents itself as a global player, firmly anchored in natural resources, energy, logistics, and agri-business, with a turnover exceeding one billion euros. Its branches extend from Cyprus to Panama, passing through London and Conakry. But behind the facade of sustainable growth, legal breaches are opening up.
The SBG, which was granted its concession in 2016 for the exploitation of the Garafiri deposit (300 million tons of reserves), aimed to locally transform bauxite into alumina, with a refinery announced at 1.6 million tons per year and a promised investment of 1.4 billion USD. The project was presented as the most integrated in the country, with estimated tax revenues of 72 million dollars per year and thousands of jobs at stake. In 2018, Axel Fischer, head of Monaco Resources, praised the Guinean investment environment; seven years later, it is the same Guinea that rolls out the red carpet for him.
Officially, Guinean authorities denounce the opacity surrounding the initial award of the permit, including a takeover orchestrated from Luxembourg. In the background: a series of anomalies, offshore connections, and figures with heavy CVs.
Axel Fischer, a German-Monegasque entrepreneur, is mentioned in several procedures. As for the capital structure, it leads to Cycorp First Investment, a Cypriot holding company owned by Pascale Younès, Axel Fischer’s partner and discreet figure in Franco-Lebanese oil trading.
In its transformation in July 2023, Monaco Resources renamed itself Sonel Investment and officially withdrew from the mining sector to refocus its ambitions on infrastructure and logistics. A repositioning that does not convince the markets: in London, MRG Finance UK PLC discreetly proposed to modify the terms of a 50 million euro bond loan, with an early repayment at 2% of the nominal value. Creditors will appreciate.
Since taking over Necotrans assets in 2017, the group had nevertheless scored points, aligning terminals in Europe, China, and Africa, all articulated around a vision: connecting flows, mastering the value chain. But the conglomerate’s strategy has collided with legal and regulatory reality.
SBG, whose base agreement had been signed with great fanfare with the Guinean state, thus becomes the symbol of disenchantment. Conakry, in search of mining sovereignty, seems determined to review the concessions signed by the former regime.
The withdrawal of the license from SBG could be just the first domino. Especially since Guinean authorities, now more vigilant on the traceability of flows and the reality of investments, are now closely scrutinizing the old agreements inherited from the previous decade. As for Sonel Investment, its African future is now being written without bauxite, but not without turbulence.
