Rio Tinto, the world's largest producer of iron ore, said work had been suspended at the SimFer mine site after the accident on Saturday. Chief executive Simon Trott said he will travel to Guinea this week.
"Nothing is more important than the safety of everyone who works with us," Trott said. "We are determined to learn from this incident and to do everything we can to provide the safest possible workplace and prevent tragedies like this from happening."
A Reuters review of internal documents, conducted in 2025, found six local workers had been killed between June 2023 and November 2024 in the construction of a port and a 670-kilometre railway leading to the mines in remote rural Guinea.
Since November 2024, at least two additional fatalities have been reported at the project.
A Rio Tinto spokesperson, asked about the Reuters findings in 2025, did not comment directly on the toll, but said in an emailed statement the company was "working each and every day with our partners ... to share knowledge and expertise so safety is continuously improved across Simandou - which is a uniquely complex project".
Rio Tinto owns a 53 per cent stake in the SimFer consortium, which holds the rights to half the vast Simandou concession - Blocks 3 and 4 - while Chinese state groups own the rest of the consortium.
A separate group led by Baowu Winning Consortium Simandou owns 85 per cent of the operating company for the other half of the concession - Blocks 1 and 2.
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