IRJET- The Challenges of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector in Sierra Leone (original) (raw)
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Journal of Rural Studies, 2007
Sierra Leone is currently emerging from a brutal civil war that lasted most of the 1990s, and now has the dubious distinction of being ranked among the world's poorest countries. As thousands of displaced people move back to their villages, a large proportion of the predominantly farm-based rural population are growing food crops for the first time in a decade. Alluvial diamond mining makes an important contribution to the national economy, though some would argue that Sierra Leone's diamonds are a 'resource curse'. Drawing upon research undertaken in the 1970s and also in the post-conflict period, the paper provides a longitudinal perspective on the complex links between the farming and mining sectors. Recent field research in Sierra Leone's Eastern Province, indicates that many links between farming and diamond mining have actually been maintained despite severe dislocation. These links could play a key role in rejuvenating market-oriented food production, providing the much-needed impetus for post-war rural development. In charting a future development trajectory, the paper recognizes the urgent need for an effective management scheme for both mining and marketing diamonds, given the potentially destabilizing effect on the country of the uncontrolled exploitation of this valuable resource. In this context, a recent community-based, integrated management initiative adopted by one local NGO, the Peace Diamond Alliance, is examined. If meaningful rural development is to be achieved among desperately poor communities, development strategies must be based on a detailed understanding of the nature of inter-locking livelihoods in the agricultural and mining sectors. r
Environmental Science & Policy, 2021
In recent years, governments, donors and policy makers across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have increasingly realised the potential of formalizing and supporting artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)-low tech, labour-intensive mineral processing and extracting. A significant body of evidence suggests that ASM has become the most important rural non-farm activity across SSA, and by making it the centrepiece of new rural development strategies being launched across the continent, it could help governments meet a number of targets linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Focusing on the West African country of Sierra Leone, this paper explores recent reforms to ASM, examining both their potential to support a formalized sector, and to make contributions to the SDGs. In doing so, two broad sets of formalization reforms that have taken place, or are underway, are analysed. First, the paper examines Sierra Leone's legal, policy and regulatory reforms that have shaped the development of a number of laws and policies, including the Mines and Minerals Act of 2009. Second, it analyses institutional reforms resulting from the splitting of policy making and regulatory functions, especially the decentralization of the artisanal mining licencing process. The paper argues that beneath these changes, there exists intractable continuities of informality that make reforms in the sector superficial, unsustainable, and potentially a barrier to attaining the SDGs. Underlining these continuities, the paper suggests, is the role that ASM has traditionally played in a political economy that links powerful local Chieftains with national politicians in mutually beneficial relationships, which invariably render formal state regulators such as the National Minerals Agency and Environment Protection Agency largely uncoordinated, and operationally weak. The paper concludes by arguing that that the persistence of informality in the sector needs to first be dismantled as a rational strategy for those who profit from it, and only then can sustainable mining reforms be linked to broader development initiatives, such as attaining the SDGs.
The Untold Benefits of Mineral Mining in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Sierra Leone
International Journal of Mining Science (IJMS)
Sierra Leone is endowed with abundant natural resources that have potential to transform the lives of its citizens if sustainably utilized. Although the blueprint of mining in Sierra Leone is characterized by environmental degradation, but the sector also has positive impact on society. Since 1930, mineral extraction incomes have been helping to forge socio-economic development in the small nation although critics argue that the impact is barely felt or seen. Over the years, mineral resources have been the main source of export and direct foreign exchange earning for Sierra Leone. Artisanal and large-scale mining have provided jobs for thousands of people of Sierra Leone over the past decades. Income from mining especially in rural community’s support livelihood and regulate the local economy in mining communities. Revenues generated from mining in the form of taxes, exploration fees, environmental impact assessment and monitoring fees, surface rent, license fees and customs taxes among others have help the government in undertaking massive infrastructural development across the country. Mining companies over the years have built schools, clinics, police stations, community centers, bridges, engaged in road maintenance, provide scholarship for outstanding student within the mining communities, support agribusiness ventures, support sporting activities and provided loan to local for business startups as part of their corporate social responsibilities. Nonetheless, improper reporting, corruption, civil war, weak mining policies, inadequate reporting of revenue collected from and lack of transparency prompted public mistrust on benefits of mining in Sierra Leone. It is recommended that revenue generated by mining companies be made public and corporate social responsibilities (CSR) undertaken be published regularly.
Long and short term implications of mineral mining operations in Sierra Leone: A review
Natural resources conservation and research, 2024
is among the few countries endowed with substantial mineral resources deposits in Africa. This review throws light on the long-and short-term positive impact of the mining sector in Sierra Leone. Over the past decade, the revenue derived from mineral mining has had little impact on the economic development of the country. According to history, extensive mineral mining operations is traced back to the early 1930s. Nonetheless, the inception of mineral extractions in Sierra Leone has been characterized by political instability, war, biodiversity loss, corruption, hardship among others. Based on available literature, mineral extraction in Sierra Leone has directly or indirectly impacted the 1), environment (ecosystem and biodiversity) 2), governance and leadership (stakeholder's consultation) and 3) economic growth and development. The common negative impact are environmental pollution, degradation and social issues such as sexual violence, teenage pregnancy, early marriage, prostitutions, school dropout and spread of transmissible diseases among other issues. The source of data for this review was acquired from the secondary source. Information was source from both published and unpublished materials of interest. Key words such as mineral mining, mineral resources, mining benefits, mining policies, mining challenges were searched for important information on the subject matter. In some mining edge communities across Sierra Leone, protest and other human right abuses perpetrated by company's authorities and security officials is common within these communities in Sierra Leone. On the other hand, mineral mining has served as a means of sustainable livelihood booster for deprived mining edge communities in Sierra Leone. Additionally, some mining edge communities in Serra Leone enjoy better economic conditions from the cooperate social responsibility (CSR) scheme of most mining companies. Alternately, mineral mining has also been a source of political tension and tradeoff between local resident and mining companies/governments. To remedy this situation, the government in recent years, has enacted many policies, legislations and regulations that supports the judicious extraction and management of minerals for the benefits of all in Sierra Leone. It is therefore recommended that, best international practices and standard operating procedures related to mining extraction be adopted and applied across all mining sites in Sierra Leone. This will help in mitigating the human right abuses trade-off between mining communities and mining companies for a better future.
Diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone 1930 to 2010: a resource curse?
Abstract This paper uses the resource curse hypothesis to explore diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone during the period 1930–2010. Focusing on national and local level analysis, it examines whether the net impact of diamond exploitation was a ‘resource curse’ or ‘blessing’ during four time periods: colonial and early post-independence era, the APC era, the civil war period, and post-war era. The paper argues that the net impact of diamond exploitation in Sierra Leone has not been constant; rather it has changed between resource blessing and curse over different major periods of Sierra Leone’s history and at local and national scales since inception of diamond exploitation. This paper illustrates that during the period 1968–1992 patrimonial politics undermined official diamond exploitation and significantly contributed to a pendulum shift in the net effects of diamond exploitation from resource blessing to curse. The study shows that the net effect of diamond exploitation was: a resource blessing (especially at the national level) prior to 1968; more of a resource curse during the APC era; a full blown manifestation of the curse during the civil war period; and that governance of the diamond sector has improved sufficiently in post-civil war Sierra Leone to start the gradual transformation of diamonds to resource blessing, at national and local levels.
" It can lift someone from poverty " : Imagined futures in the Sierra Leonean diamond market
A B S T R A C T This article aims to draw attention to the role of the future in artisanal mining. It argues that in order to understand the dynamics of artisanal mining, research must understand miners' imaginaries of a better future which inform their economic strategies in the present. Drawing on Jens Beckert's (2016) concepts of fictional expectations and imagined futures, the article investigates projections of the future and strategies of future-making in the Sierra Leonean diamond market. If these expectations remain poorly understood, development policies will not be able to address the needs of mining communities.
Diamond Industry Annual Review: Sierra Leone 2006
2006
corruption – the two were very closely linked – the decade-long conflict drew much-needed international attention to the processes of diamond mining and trading. Since their commercial exploitation began in the 1930s, diamonds have influenced Sierra Leone’s fortunes in ways that no other economic activity has. Accounting for more than two-thirds of the nation’s export earnings and a quarter of GDP for the early years of the post-colonial period, diamonds have been profoundly influential in shaping Sierra Leone’s history and its social and political life, for good and ill. During the 1990s, the trajectory of the diamond industry in Sierra Leone was wholly negative: diamonds were implicated in the decade-long conflict which almost completely destroyed the country and led to the deaths of upwards of 75,000 of its citizens. International attention, as a result, has until recently focused on how the gems are traded – their movement to the international market. The Kimberley Process, an i...
Sierra Leone’s illicit diamonds: the challenges and the way forward
GeoJournal, 2011
Although the Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme has considerably reduced the flow of conflict diamonds from 4% to less than 1%, other forms of illicit diamonds are estimated at 20% of global production. While scholars and policy makers have given considerable attention to illicit mining and smuggling (with some success), illicit exploitation still hinders revenue generation that is needed for economic