Kazakh businessman Almas Mynbayev, nephew of former Kazakh oil and gas minister and ex-head of KazMunayGas and KTZ Sauat Mynbayev, is suing the government of Guinea over a bauxite mining license. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The lawsuit was filed with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under the World Bank. The claimants are Mynbayev himself and the Singapore-registered company Nomad Bauxite Corporation Pte Ltd. The application was submitted in November 2025.
In May 2026, the composition of the arbitration tribunal was formed. Lucinda A. Low from the American law firm Steptoe Johnson LLP was appointed as chair. The interests of the claimants are represented by arbitrator Dominique Hascher from France, while Eduardo Silva Romero was appointed on behalf of Guinea.
The parties are now awaiting the start of the hearing on the merits.
Guinea is considered one of the key countries in the global bauxite market: almost 50% of the world's reserves of this raw material, used for aluminum production, are concentrated on its territory.
After the 2021 military coup, the country's new authorities announced their intention to revise the approach to mining and develop their own bauxite processing capacities to reduce exports of unprocessed ore.
52-year-old Almas Mynbayev ranks 36th in the list of the richest Kazakhs according to Forbes Kazakhstan with a fortune of $320 million. He controls a number of large companies, including Nomad Life, Nomad Insurance, and Nomad Digital Financial Services. His father (the late Sayat Mynbayev) previously headed the military counterintelligence department of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee.