The Minister of Mines Alhaji Abubakarr Jalloh has during the weekly press briefings at the Information Ministry admitted that the encroachment on Koidu Holdings concession “is true”
Minister Jalloh admitted “it is true that people encroached into the periphery of Koidu Holdings it is true.”
He however argued that the encroachment “is not (with) the permission of either the government or parliament or even the party in power, because sometimes they tell us that we have youths who are vanguards of the party and who sometimes are lawless and therefore they can do some of these things but nobody can prove whether those who did it are APC people or just diamond mongers.”
He explained further that “definitely this incursion has taken place but they did not damage anything because they believe that if they go nearer to the pipe they will get diamonds that is what they believe and sometimes the laymans point of view in getting the diamonds cannot be challenged”
Minister jalloh accepted that “indeed that has happened and we are trying to deal with that”
He disclosed that they “have dealt with that using our mines engineer in Kono district to disperse these people and negotiations have taken place and they are leaving there now gradually so that is the current position of this incursion and we think that let us all endeavour for it not to recur because whether you like Koidu Holdings or not – I have not checked the full fabric of the formation of Koidu Holdings – there are a lot of stories how it started – the fact of the matter is they are there and they are mining and they are producing and they paying taxes to government whether it is enough or not that is another matter for deliberation.”
Questioned whether his Ministry would now help Koidu Holdings erect a perimeter fence round its concessions as it is done in countries like Botswana, Minister Jalloh said “Koidu Holdings have the right to enclose to create a perimeter around where they are mining.”
He explained that this is “because what they are doing is dangerous because since I have told you they are mining hard rocks and hard rocks you have to use explosives to break down the rocks because in the process you have to take the rocks take them to a crusher and the crusher led by a belt is taken to the washing plant and so on and so forth so while they are doing blasting sometimes it affects the environment and you know we must admit in our country people think that diamonds can just be picked on the ground.”
He disclosed further that “before these kimberlite pipes were discovered townships had already been established in particular what we now call Koidu town and koidu town you know like the western area is spreading so if you say you are going to demarcate you are going to put a lot of people within your kimberlite concession and that is giving us a little bit of a problem but at this stage we are negotiating with the chiefs the district councils and other stake holders within the environment to make sure that we put in a peripheral fence which would be exclusively for Koidu Holdings.”
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