Sudan, China to build $630 mln Mauritania railway

August 4, 2007 (NOUAKCHOTT) — Sudan’s Danfodio Holding and China’s Transtech Engineering have signed an agreement to build a 460 million euro ($634 million) railway linking Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott with southern phosphate deposits at Bofal.

The deal for the 430 km (290 mile) line, which will run close to the Islamic Republic’s southern frontier with Senegal, was signed late on Friday in Nouakchott with private Mauritanian investors and Transport Minister Ahmed Ould Mohameden.

“This line will allow the exploitation of the Bofal deposits and open up isolated areas of Mauritania with considerable animal, agricultural and mineral resources,” Mohameden said at the signing.

The Mauritanian government hopes the line can link Mauritania to an existing West African rail network covering Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso.

The proven reserves of phosphate, commonly used in fertilisers, at Bofal are around 165 million tonnes. The government forecasts an annual production of 2 million tonnes over 30 years.

Transtech and its parent company China Railway Engineering Corp., one of the world’s largest railway builders, won a $1 billion contract earlier this year to build a 700-km railway in Sudan connecting the capital Khartoum with eastern Port Sudan.

(Reuters)