Guinea mining permits at risk if Israeli firm BSGR found guilty of corruption The government of Guinea's new president, Alpha Condé, is investigating numerous mining companies whose permits were awarded by the previous administration. Photograph: David Rose/Rex Features Guinea could cancel billions of dollars worth of mining permits belonging to the Israeli firm BSGR if it is found guilty of corruption in an ongoing investigation. The head of Guinea's mining review committee said that if allegations of corruption against the firm in both the west African country and the US led to convictions, then the permits would become void. "If these allegations are confirmed either by our own hearings or the judicial proceedings under way in the United States, the process of acquiring these titles is invalidated," Nava Touré told Reuters. As such, the committee would have the necessary elements to be able to request ... a cancellation of these titles. His statement is the latest twist in a dramatic sequence of events between Guinea and BSGR, the mining arm of the Israeli-French billionaire Beny Steinmetz's business empire. BSGR acquired the mining rights to part of Simandou, one of the world's largest untapped iron ore deposits, during the presidency of Lansana Conté. It is one of numerous mining companies whose permits have come under the scrutiny of Guinea's new government, led by President Alpha Condé. Now BSGR is locked in legal battles with Guinea over the right to mine Simandou. Two of its employees are being held by the authorities in the capital, Conakry, while a former Steinmetz associate, the 50-year-old French national Frederic Cilins, is in detention in the US and awaiting trial after being indicted for corruption and attempting to destroy documents. According to evidence submitted at a preliminary hearing in the US, Cillins was captured on tape offering Conté's widow Mamadie Touré, his fourth wife, a substantial bribe to destroy a number of documents. "We need to urgently, urgently, urgently destroy all of this," Cillins is alleged to have said. Last month the Guardian reported that Steinmetz was also being investigated by the FBI, in an attempt to establish whether he played any role in the alleged wrongdoing. He has denied the corruption allegations and said that talk of cancelling BSGR's contracts undermined due process. "Today's statement of intent from Nava Touré is a clear sign of the government's total disregard for legal due process in this matter," BSGR's president, Asher Avidan, said in a statement. Legal advice given to the government stated that original evidence must be provided if they were to rescind licenses, however lacking any such evidence, the government has now decided to make an arbitrary and illegal intervention. This is a clear abuse of executive power and makes a mockery of Alpha Condé's 'democratic' government. BSGR has never done anything wrong and will defend its interests including through international arbitration if necessary. Experts said that Guinea's government would wait until the outcome of judicial investigations before rendering BSGR's contracts void, but is under increasing pressure to award Simandou mining rights to another company. "Since Condé's election he has always been categorical that any evidence of corruption in the attainment of mine licenses could be used as grounds for cancellation of mining contracts," said Thomas Wilson of the London-based consultants Africa Practice. The government of Guinea is trying to do things by the book. But the investigation seems to be taking longer than it anticipated, and during that time the government is going to come under pressure from other alternative suitors keen to develop those blocs, and economic pressure at home to realise their huge economic value.