ufofana's picture
Mining stakeholders engage on new mining law in Sierra Leone

By Newman Anthony Levey in Bo

The Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources and the National Minerals Agency have held a one-day consultative meeting with stakeholders in the mining sector in the Southern region.

The meeting was designed to solicit the views and concerns of the relevant stakeholders regarding the ongoing review process of the 2009 Mines and Minerals Act.

The Chairman of the Minerals Advisory Board, Sahr Johnny, urged participants to consider the Act as their own and therefore to treat the discussions with utmost importance. Johnny said the Act will ensure that Sierra Leoneans gain more from their natural resources.

“We have moved to different areas in the country for people to tell us what they want in the new Act,” he said.

He added that when enacted, the new Act has been designed to ensure that mining companies adhered to their corporate social responsibility and that more investment will be done on landowners.

Chairman of the Mines and Minerals committee in parliament, Saa Emerson Lamina, said they wanted to ensure that everyone contributed to the process before it get to Parliament later this year.

Lamina said: "We are here to watch and hear what you want in the new Mines and Minerals Act. We Parliamentarians seek the interest of our people and we will give our support to the process.”

Issues relating to land ownership and license disputes featured prominently in the discussions.

Whiles explaining his concerns, Paramount Chief John Salia Rogers of Kpaka Chiefdom in Pujehun District said there were many disputes in Pujehun over lands with mineral deposits.

“I want the mines and minerals resources ministry to go to those areas first to see what is happening before taking the new Act to parliament,” he appealed.

During the discussions, there were talks about looking at the possibility of landowners to start mining in some of these communities.

Copyright © 2020 Politico Online

Category: 
Top