Guinea will shrug off sanctions: junta aide

By Daniel Magnowski

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's mineral wealth will help it shrug off international sanctions imposed after a lethal crackdown on anti-government protesters, according to a top aide to junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.

The West African state, the world's largest exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite, has faced isolation and punitive measures from African neighbours, the EU and ex-colonial power France since what witnesses said was the killing of over 150 protesters by security forces in the capital Conakry on September 28.

The sanctions include arms embargoes, travel bans on junta leaders and the freezing of their international bank accounts, but not trade measures. Camara is under pressure to step down and allow civilian rule -- something he has so far resisted.

"Guinea has always run itself on its own funds," Idrissa Cherif, newly appointed special adviser to Camara, told Reuters in an interview in a hotel suite in Conakry.

"It's the army which must tell Captain Dadis to leave power, because it's not you who put him there ... Where is the means to tell the army to leave power? It's practically impossible."

As well as bauxite and alumina operations run by UC RUSAL and Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, the world's biggest single shipper of the aluminium raw material, Guinea produces gold and is a potentially huge source of iron ore.

Analysts say the troubles may give new investors pause for thought before concluding contracts in Guinea, but believe that current players -- including minerals firms Rio Tinto and AnglogoldAshanti -- are likely to sit tight.

CHINESE "INTERESTED"