Deep within Guinea’s forested southeast, in a remote corner largely untouched by industrial ambitions, a mountain of promise is rising. Simandou, a storied iron ore deposit long described as the world's largest untapped resource, is swiftly becoming reality. After decades of anticipation, complicated negotiations, and immense logistical hurdles, a consortium of international giants and local heroes is transforming dreams into infrastructure, ore into opportunity, and potential into prosperity.

As dawn breaks over the red soils of Solwezi, Zambia, Peter Kalumba rises early, much like generations before him. But unlike those generations, Peter’s mornings are marked by the hum of heavy trucks rolling towards Kansanshi—Zambia's flagship copper operation. Once a full-time maize farmer, Peter now balances his agricultural roots with a growing fleet of trucks supplying sand and aggregates to the contractors building the mine’s ambitious US$1.25 billion S3 Expansion.

Executive Summary

• The Laúca Hydroelectric Dam is Angola’s largest power generation project and the second-largest hydroelectric facility in Africa, delivering 2,070 MW of clean energy.

• Developed by GAMEK and built by Odebrecht (OEC), with major equipment supplied by ANDRITZ Hydro, the $4.3 billion project powers 10 of Angola’s 18 provinces and supports up to 10 million people.

Introduction: Digital Transformation in Energy Hits Overdrive

In 2019 the Spanish hub was riding high: almost 62 million passengers, eighty airlines, and roughly twelve hundred daily flights. That activity generated ten percent of the Madrid region’s gross domestic product and sustained forty-thousand direct jobs, turning the airport into one of the city’s most important economic engines. Then the pandemic landed. Global aviation slammed on the brakes and passenger traffic at Barajas collapsed by nearly seventy percent in the first nine months of 2020.

Deep within Guinea’s forested southeast, in a remote corner largely untouched by industrial ambitions, a mountain of promise is rising. Simandou, a storied iron ore deposit long described as the world's largest untapped resource, is swiftly becoming reality. After decades of anticipation, complicated negotiations, and immense logistical hurdles, a consortium of international giants and local heroes is transforming dreams into infrastructure, ore into opportunity, and potential into prosperity.