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- The government of Sierra Leone is on a mission to revive its mining sector.
- The country is estimated to have platinum group metals, Coltan , gold, diamonds, bauxite and chromite.
Until May 2014, Sierra Leone exported a billion-dollar iron ore annually until Ebola virus crippled the industry and its exports. The virus killed hundreds of mining workers and the remaining fled the country. The government of Sierra Leone is on a mission to revive its mining sector. Director general of the mining ministry of Sierra Leone Julius Mattai was vigorously scouting for foreign investors at the MiningIndaba 2020 in Cape Town, last week.
The Sierra Leone government completed an aerial survey of the country’s mineral wealth and the results will be released next month. The country is estimated to have a good stock of platinum group metals, Rutile – a prized and pricy titanium dioxide that is used in aerospace. It also claims to have abundant deposits of Coltan – used to bind together the inside of laptops – gold, diamonds, bauxite and chromite.
Attracted by the Policy Reforms in the mining sector,15 mining companies have returned to Sierra Leone, out of which four are operational. In 2019, Sierra Leone recorded exports of $350 million in mining. The government hopes to double the size of our mining industry by 2025.
