By Kemo Cham
As yet another discouraging sign for the mining sector, the owners of the only cargo train in Sierra Leone have announced that they will cut down on the number of locomotives running through it.
The 2.24MW locomotives, which were once used to haul iron on the 200km rail line from the Tonkolili mine to the Port of Pepel in Port Loko, was constructed by the defunct African Minerals Limited, which has since been acquired by the Chinese steel manufacturing giant, Shandong Iron and Steel Group (SISG).
The railway was one of three related projects ran by AML, alongside the Ports Services and the Tonkolili Mine.
In the face of pressure in the international iron market, complicated by the effect of the 2014-2016 Ebola Epidemic, AML was forced into administration and was later acquired by Shandong through its subsidiary Shansteel (SL) Limited in 2015. The Chinese miner then entered an agreement through a private commercial contract with the South Africa-based cargo services provider, Grindrod Freight Services, to operate the locomotives.
A total of 34 units locomotives were supplied to AML.
The National Minerals Agency (NMA), which announced the decision to slice the locomotives, said in a statement that Shansteel and Grindrod reached the decision in light of the scaling down of operations by the former.
“Following the scaling down of operations by Shansteel Limited at the Tonkolili mine, due to the fall in the global iron-ore price, the contracting parties have agreed to cut down the number of locomotives in operation,” the statement posted on the website of the minerals regulatory agency said.
“Consequent upon the above, Grindrod Freight Services has decided to demobilize locomotives that are surplus to current requirements,” it added, without specifying how many units of the locomotives will be sliced.
But the statement said that the number of locomotives in country currently were enough to continue iron-ore operations.
The facility was also meant to be used by other business interests, including other mining companies and general freight and passenger transport companies.
It was also intended that the infrastructure would in due course provide a facility servicing the wider West Africa sub-region, enabling both Sierra Leone and neighboring countries to export their goods to international markets.
The development comes as Sierra Leone tries to revive the mining sector which suffered a heavy setback since 2014. Besides AML/Shandong, several other mining companies have been forced to shut down, including London Mining.
This has led to losses of thousands of jobs and millions of US Dollars in revenue for the government.
But in the last one year, there have been renewed hopes with the entrance of a handful of players and intended players, notably the American-owned and British-based SL Mining.
SL Mining inherited the Marampa mines, located in Lunsar in the Port Loko district, which was operated by London Mining before it went into administration a few years ago. The owners of the new company, the United Kingdom-based Gerald Group, have committed to invest US$300m in two phases.
The Marampa mine is currently the only operating iron ore mine in the country and it is a certain beneficiary of the rail services.
© 2019 Politico Online
