Fria is a town and

Sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

Lower Guinea Lower Guinea may refer to: * Maritime Guinea, the coastal region of the republic of Guinea. * in biogeography, a region of coastal tropical forests stretching along the Gulf of Guinea, from Ghana through Benin, Togo, Nigeria, and Cameroon. It is sep ...

, lying north of

Conakry Conakry ( , ; ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973. The current population of C ...

near the Amaria Dam on the

Konkouré River The Konkouré River arises in west-central Guinea and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Several dams on the river provide the country with much of its electricity. Geography The river originates in the Futa Jallon highland region and flows in a west ...

. As of 2014 it had a population of 61,691 people.

Overview

There are some variations in the name of the town: Friguia, Kimbo or Kimbo-city. Fria is known for its local

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

s, the Grottes de Bogoro and the Grottes de Konkouré). The town's economy relies heavily upon

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

mining and aluminum production. The town of Fria was built around a company called Kimbo-Fria, now ACG Fria (Aluminum Company of Guinea), Africa's first aluminum factory. ACG-Fria is the only operating alumina refinery in Guinea, producing 600,000 tonnes of alumina and 2.8 million tonnes of bauxite per year. The president of Guinea, Lansana Conte, signed an agreement with RUSAL privatizing the bauxite and aluminum complex in Fria run by the

Alumina Company of Guinea The Alumina Company of Guinea (ACG-Fria) is a bauxite mining company based in Fria, Guinea. They are the main aluminium producing company in the country, and was once part-owned by the government of Guinea in Conakry and by the Reynolds Metals Co ...

. This will allow for eventual doubling of the company's capacity.

Transportation

Fria Airport Fria Airport is an airport serving Fria, a town and prefecture in the Boke Region of the Republic of Guinea. The airport is on the southeast side of Fria. An overrun to the southwest will drop into a deep ravine. See also * * *Transport in ...

serves the city.

Railway

The bauxite mine is connected by a 1000mm gauge railway to the port of

Notable residents

Dede Camara Dede Camara (born 22 July 1991) is a Guinean swimmer. She competed for Guinea at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Camara ranked 46th in the Women's 100m breaststroke event and did not advance to the semifinals. Disappearance On 11 August 2012, one da ...

- Olympic swimmer

References

{{Authority control Mining communities in Africa Mining in Guinea Sub-prefectures of the Boké Region