Our industrial sites
GCO’s mineral sands concession stretches 106 kilometers along the Atlantic coast and 4 km inland. Both processing plants are located in Diogo, while the mining deposit is located in the dunes, in the regions of Thiès and Louga.
Two of the mining facilities known as Wet Concentration Plants (WCPs) – the dredger and the heavy minerals concentration plant – are constantly moving, traveling around 7 to 13 kilometers a year, which is an extraordinary technical and human achievement. Their route takes them through a number of hamlets and villages, whose inhabitants are resettled. To maintain production, GCO also uses a Mineral Separation Plant (MSP), a power plant, as well as transportation infrastructure (railroad) and ore storage facilities in the Port of Dakar.
The natural resources are abundant but low in mineral content, requiring significant investment (What we do) of up to USD 800 million to make them economical. The project will last at least 25 years.
710 direct jobs and 820 indirect jobs (subcontractors) are generated by GCO; 94% of these jobs are occupied by Senegalese people.
Local teams trained by the best experts have gradually taken over each of the operational units (the mine, the separation plant, the concentration plant, transportation, etc.), highlighting the success of GCO’s local training and skills transfer programs.
At present, the teams running GCO’s operational units are mostly composed of Senegalese workers. The same is true for tertiary activities.
GCO generated around 81 billion CFA francs (€122 m) in economic benefits in 2020. This income has been a boon to the country and the region where the industrial site is located.