“Mining has been very critical in Sierra Leone accounting for 80-90% of the its export, so we want to make sure the country and the people benefit from the resources which they have,” said World Bank Country Manager for Sierra Leone Parminder Brar.
He made this statement while announcing a $20 million USD grant from the International Development Association (IDA), for the second phase of the Extractive Industries Technical Assistance Project (EITAP 2) which is directed to the mining sector.
Giving a background on mining in Sierra Leone, Brar said, “Alluvia mining has been going on for a long time. Diamonds were discovered in Sierra Leone since 1930 and in 1950 the value of export in Sierra Leone was £3 million and then a huge diamond boom happen in 1954 and the value of diamonds increased to £20 million. At that time the country accounted for 10-15% of all diamonds sold in the world”.
According to the World Bank Country Manager, one key objective of the grant is to support the artisanal mining sector because during that time (around 1954) “there were about 25,000 people involved in the alluvia diamond mining business, but currently, close to 300,000 people are working in the artisanal mining business”.
“This sector is largely unregulated as 50% of the people involved in this business do not have licenses or permits.”
Brar further stated that in the Bank’s earlier project, which was EITAP1 that lasted from 2009 to 2016, helped to define the new mineral policy and a new artisanal mining policy.
“And so EITAP 2 will be looking at conversion of the policies into law and the revision of the Mining Act. Another objective is regulate and improve governance, improve licenses procedures and to also work with local communities”.
Brar furthered that of the $20 million, $10 million is marked for a geophysical survey. “One of the biggest challenges in the mining sector is that there is no up- to-date geological maps. This has been a fundamental problem affecting the country”.
He said, “Some of the mining companies that come in do very specific geophysical mapping primarily in the area of their concession and they don’t have a country wide geophysical map. So half of this funding will be used for geophysical mapping and so they are working with the government on confidentiality and sharing of the data.”
The Director of Geological Surveys at the National Minerals Agency, Prince Cuffay, said, “Part of the 5-year strategic plan of NMA was to develop a geophysical survey. We need reliable and significant geophysical data to work with.”
“The grant,” Perminder Brar said, “will improve the mining sector governance and one of the agencies they will be working with is NMA as they will help to strengthen it as into a functioning government office. We will also set up the Mineral Revenue Programme, which is a forum where mining companies will have regular interactions with the government regarding mining issues.”
Brar noted, “We want to run a pilot programme on “green gold”, which does not use chemicals that harm the environment. It uses environmentally-friendly chemicals and it produces gold at a premium price”.
BM/27/11/17
By Betty Milton
Tuesday November 28, 2017.
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