Billionaire-backed Ivanhoe Atlantic’s lofty plans for Guinea iron ore inch forward with Liberia rail deal

A billionaire-backed company with big plans hitch a ride on the Guinea iron ore train is ready to start construction on another Pilbara rival after clinching Government rail and port approval. Ivanhoe Atlantic’s plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange via an initial public offer have been in the works since the start of the year, but had to be pushed back while it waited for the Government of Liberia to ratify access to rail and port infrastructure in the West African nation. The new deal revealed on Friday allows Ivanhoe — whose biggest shareholder is led by billionaire mining tycoon Robert Friedland — to shift an initial 5 million tonnes of iron ore from its Kon Kweni deposit in Guinea through Liberia to port on existing rail. Ivanhoe said its environmental impact assessments in Guinea and Liberia were currently under review and that construction was due to start an Kon Kweini, part-owed by the Guinea Government, in the first quarter of 2026. West Africa’s untapped iron ore riches make it an appealing jurisdiction for mining companies like US-based Ivanhoe, but the territory comes with considerable logistical and political baggage. Rio Tinto and its Chinese partners at Winning Consortium finally waved goodbye to first shipments from the high-grade Simandou iron ore project — 160km away from Ivanhoe’s patch —earlier this month. That followed decades of negotiations and the building 600km of brand new wending railway through the region. A closely-watched ramp-up period is now underway. Ivanhoe meanwhile is hoping to hitch a ride on the existing infrastructure running through Liberia, with plans to “support the Government of Liberia through the formation of the National Rail Authority (“NRA”), responsible for overseeing the Government appointment of an independent operator”. Ivanhoe CEO Bronwyn Barnes on Friday said the ratification of the rail agreement was in line with Liberian President Boakai’s policy to transition existing rail infrastructure to a multi-user, independently operated system “and marks a significant milestone”. “This opens up a valuable logistics chain to other users in Liberia and neighbouring countries, including US aligned companies looking to expand into the region,” she said. A statement from the Liberian Government on July 8 said that Ivanhoe Liberia would eventually have “the right to develop up to 30 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) of rail-port access capacity, against which the company made a $US37 million upfront payment to the previous administration.” Ivanhoe was due to make further payments with $US10m due once the agreement had been ratified, and then another $US15m due once Ivanhoe gets “physical access for Phase 1 operations”, the ministry said at the time. But any plans to step up production to 30mtpa will also require further upgrades to the rail and a new port to be built at Didier. Speaking at a WA Mining Club event earlier this year, Ivanhoe’s CEO Bronwyn Barnes was confident that funding for that would come from private investors and development finance institutions. A Financial Times report on December 17th claimed the ambitious new iron ore venture faced political hurdles. These included relying on the Guinea Government sticking to an agreement inked in 2019 — before the Simandou network was built — allowing the ore to be sent through Liberia. The FT report also claimed the project had run into opposition from a Republican member of US Congress concerned about the broader Ivanhoe empire’s links to China. Ms Barnes told a mining event in August that none of the iron ore from Kon Kweni would be sold to China.