Sierra Leone: Miners Brace for “Catastrophe"

Jan 29, 2015 | Silas Gbandia, Equal Times
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Sierra Leone could lose more than 7,000 mining jobs following a decision by the country’s largest employer to temporarily retrench workers.

Although workers at African Minerals – which is not only Sierra Leone’s biggest iron ore producer but also the biggest contributor to its GDP – were sent home with full pay at the beginning of November, it is a situation that workers and trade unions fear may turn permanent.

Executives at the London-listed company cite the falling price of iron ore for the “controlled shut down initiated at operations” at the flagship Tonkolili mining project – 25 per cent of which is owned by China’s Shandong Iron and Steel Group.