In April 1998, a young geologist and his team set out from the village of Moribadou and trekked for six hours through the Guinea Highlands, a densely forested plateau that spreads across four countries in West Africa.
"It was extremely difficult,” said Sidiki Kone. "In front was forest. It was forest to the left and forest to the right. Behind it was the same thing. And I said, ‘How is this work possible?’”
Kone was mapping and drilling for his employer Rio Tinto Group, one of the largest mining companies. It had recently confirmed the presence of vast quantities of iron ore — the raw material for manufacturing steel.
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