In the small village of Lasanayah, Mamadou Kalissa looks out over his ancestral home.
在Lasanayah的一个小村庄里，马马杜·卡利萨朝着自己的老家看去。
Last year it was farmland but now bauxite mining has turned it into a Martian landscape that extends as far as the eye can see.
去年，这里还是农田，如今铝土矿开采将这个地方变成了一片一望无际的火星景象。
Guinea's red gold is the main ore used to make aluminium. The Boke region in western Guinea has some of the world's richest reserves.
几内亚的红金是用于制作铝的主要矿石。几内亚西部的博凯大区是世界几处储备最丰富的地区之一。
A mining lorry rolls past, kicking up dust and causing Mr Kalissa to cough and spit saliva with a reddish tinge.
采矿卡车从这里驶过，扬起的灰层让卡利萨咳嗽，吐出的唾液也带有一些微红。
Every day hundreds of these lorries tear past the surrounding villages, bearing loads destined for China.
每天，数百辆卡车飞驰过周围的村庄，载着货物开往中国。
There is nothing new about China's interest in African raw materials.
中国对非洲原材料感兴趣，这并不稀奇。
Both Chinese and Western commodities companies have long looked to the continent's mineral wealth as a way to meet surging demand from China.
长久以来，中国和西方大宗商品企业都依靠这片大陆上的矿物资源满足中国急剧增长的需求。
But difficulties building infrastructure and negotiating mineral rights have stymied many projects.
但是基础设施建筑和采矿权谈判中的困难妨碍了很多项目。
As a result of years of squabbling over mining rights, for example, not one tonne of ore has been extracted from Simandou, a vast iron-ore deposit in south-east Guinea.
例如，由于采矿权争端，多年来一处位于几内亚东南部的巨大铁矿床没有提取出过一公吨的矿石。
Extracting Boké's bauxite has met with less resistance.
提炼博凯大区铝土矿所遇到的阻力要小一些。
Bauxite is used in many things from power lines and planes to phones and cooking pots. China is by far the world's largest consumer.
铝土矿被用于很多领域，从输电线和飞机到电话和烹饪锅。目前，中国是世界最大的铝土矿消费国。
But in 2014, the country's aluminium giants ran into a big problem acquiring bauxite.
但在2014年，该国的铝矿巨头在获取铝土矿中遇上了一个大麻烦。
Indonesia, a large producer, stopped exports because of the damage that mining causes—
由于采矿所带来的破坏，铝土矿生产大国印尼停止出口铝土矿—
it requires stripping vast amounts of topsoil and battering the ground beneath. Two years later, Malaysia ended bauxite mining for the same reason.
采矿需要剥离大量表层土，对地表下层进行猛击。两年后，马来西亚也因同样的原因停止了铝土矿的开采。
Guinea, with the largest untapped iron and bauxite reserves in the world, offered an alternative.
拥有世界最大未开发铁矿和铝土矿储备的几内亚成为了替代。
In 2014 Winning Shipping, a Singaporean maritime firm, and UMS, a Guinean logistics firm, teamed up with Shandong Weiqiao,
2014年，一家新加坡海事公司韦立航运和一家几内亚物流公司UMS与中国领头铝生产商山东魏桥公司合作
China's leading aluminium producer, in a joint venture called La Société Minière de Boké (SMB). Guinea's government also holds a 10% stake.
成立一家名为博凯矿业公司（SMB）的合资公司。几内亚政府也拥有该公司10%的股份。
SMB obtained rights to mine two areas in Boke, producing the first bauxite in 2015.
SMB拥有博凯大区两处区域的采矿权，并于2015年开采了第一批铝土矿。
SMB alone will produce 35m tonnes in 2018, almost double Guinea's total exports five years earlier.
2018年，仅SMB一家公司就将生产3500百万公吨铝土矿，是几内亚五年前出口总量的近两倍。
Everything goes to China; almost half of its bauxite imports come from Guinea.
出口中国的铝土矿中，有将近一半的进口来自于几内亚。
"The stars were aligned," is how Frederic Bouzigues, SMB's director-general, describes the firm's expansion.
“是上天的安排，”SMB的总负责人Frederic Bouzigues这样描述公司的扩张。
Other bauxite miners are based further inland and are constrained by a lack of railway lines to the coast.
其他铝土矿矿主位于内陆腹地，他们缺乏连接海岸的铁路，因而受到限制。
SMB's sites are less than 50km from the sea; the company built two ports and roads and transports everything by land on lorries.
SMB的所在地距离大海不足50公里；公司建了两个港口和公路，并使用卡车经由陆路运输所有货物。

The importance of Guinea to China is clear.

几内亚对中国的重要性显而易见。
The authorities in Beijing have promised the government a $20bn loan—twice the country's GDP—to be paid to Guinea in instalments over 20 years,
北京当局承诺为几内亚提供200亿美元的贷款（这是几内亚GDP的两倍），并将在20年内分期付给几内亚
to secure access to its bauxite. But SMB's rapid expansion has come at a cost.
以换取铝土矿资源。但SMB的迅速扩张也是有代价的。
A report published in October by Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy group,
一家国际宣传组人权监察站在10月发布的一份报告称
said that the Guinean government has allowed SMB to bypass environmental safeguards.
几内亚政府允许SMB绕开环境保护措施。
"The focus on growth has been at the expense of the local peoples' environment and livelihoods," says Jim Wormington, one of the group's researchers.
“专注增长一直都是以当地人的环境和生计为代价的，”该组织研究员之一吉姆·沃明顿说道。
Although SMB employs more than 17,000 people directly or indirectly,
虽然SMB直接或间接雇佣了17000名员工，
many locals say the new job opportunities are not enough to compensate for the environmental damage.
但当地人表示新的工作机会并不足以补偿环境的破坏。
SMB says it has paid all its taxes and done the proper environmental checks.
SMB表示公司缴纳了所有的税，并做了适当的环境检查工作。
The situation around the mines is nonetheless grim.
尽管如此，矿区周围的情况依旧严峻。
SMB gave hundreds of villagers a one-off payment for access to their land but many villages are perilously perched near wide roads over which lorries pass day and night.
SMB向数百位村民一次性付款买下了他们的土地使用权，但是很多村庄位于危机四伏地宽阔公路附近，日夜仰望卡车从眼前穿过。
Many villagers say they lack proper access to clean water because the mining operations have blocked or polluted rivers.
很多村民表示他们缺乏干净的水资源，因为采矿作业阻断或污染了河流。
SMB says it builds wells for the villages, and supplies water in tankers until they are completed.
SMB表示公司为村民建了井，并供应大量用水直到这些井口建好为止。
But a government commissioned audit in May 2018 said that SMB conducted "no monitoring of the environment"
但是2018年5月的一份政府委任审计报告显示，SMB执行的是“环境无监测”准则
and that the consortium lacks equipment to monitor air or water quality.
并且该公司缺乏监控空气或水资源质量的设备。
There are some signs of improvement: SMB says that it began an environmental monitoring programme this year.
也有一些改善的迹象：SMB表示今年公司开始了一项环境监控项目。
But little of the money SMB pays in charges and taxes is reinvested locally by the central government.
但是SMB缴纳的费用和税款很少被中央政府用于当地的再投资。
Mr Bouzigues says that when the consortium built a health centre it took the government about two years to send a doctor to man it.
Bouzigues表示当该公司建了一个家健康中心后，政府花了约两年时间才派了医生过来坐诊。
In an interview with The Economist in April he admitted that SMB itself could do more to improve locals' lives and that he personally wants to do better.
今年四月在与本刊的采访中，他承认SMB本身可以做更多来改善当地人的生活，而他个人也希望可以做得更好。
Guinea could in theory industrialise if it moved to processing bauxite instead of exporting it raw.
理论上，几内亚可以变成工业化国家，只要他们转向铝土矿加工，而不是原材料出口。
SMB does have plans to build Guinea's first refinery, by 2022. Whatever happens, Boke's residents will find themselves at the mercy of the search for this prized material.
SMB确实计划截止2022年建立几内亚的第一家精炼厂。不管出现什么情况，博凯大区的居民都将发现他们受到了搜寻这种有价值材料的摆布。
"We can't just leave. We have nowhere to go," says Mr Kalissa, looking out over the red earth.
“我们不能就这样离开。我们无处可去，”卡利萨看向那片红色的红壤说道。

来源：经济学人