Rusal Supports Local Communities in Guinea during Covid-19 pandemic

The company opens a new multifunctional medical center for the treatment of infectious diseases

RUSAL is a significant player in the bauxite and alumina industry in Guinea and one of the country’s largest private sector investors. Last June the company announced the opening of a new medical center constructed as part of the hospital within the Friguia bauxite-alumina complex. The newly built medical facility and its wards host 38 beds and includes an isolated infectious diseases department, a sanitary checkpoint for medical staff, an observatory, and an intensive care unit. RUSAL was one of the first private companies to help Africa fight mass infectious diseases: in 2015, during Ebola crisis, the company built a Centre for Epidemic and Microbiological Research and Treatment (CEMRT) in the Guinean Kindia province, and such a hospital has been indispensable during this time as it was among the first to receive patients with confirmed Coronavirus infections during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yakov Itskov, Director of RUSAL’s alumina business, said: “RUSAL strives not only to meet the highest standards in bauxite mining and alumina production in the country, but also to follow best practices to protect our employees, their families and residents of the region from epidemics and pandemics”. In fact, over the course of the Ebola EVD epidemic period, the CEMRT witnessed the best survival rate in Guinea: 62.5% of the Center’s patients diagnosed with EVD have recovered. The Centre represents a comprehensive medical facility, bringing under one roof an infection hospital, a provisional hospital, a mobile laboratory and a blood and plasma transfusion department with a laboratory. The CEMRT was a key facility combat the Ebola epidemic.

In July 2017, the first batch of 1,000 Ebola vaccine doses were sent from Russia to Guinea to be administered at RUSAL’s CEMRT and vaccination of volunteers began. The test includes the vaccination of over a thousand volunteers followed by the observation and monitoring of their health and immune system for one year. Successful results will allow the application of the Russian vaccine as a preventive Ebola treatment worldwide.
Rusal is continuing to collaborate with the Russian government to fight the Covid-19 epidemic in Guinea providing logistical support to deliver humanitarian goods, including ventilators, disposable supplies for disease treatment and diagnosis, Russia-made test systems and reagents for Covid-19 testing with a view to enhancing its national potential to counter the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. RUSAL is the owner of Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia (CBK) and Friguia Bauxite and Alumina Complex. Friguia production complex includes a bauxite mine, an alumina refinery and a railway network. The Company is also developing the Dian-Dian project, the world’s largest bauxite deposit.