By Victoria Averill
NIMIKOR CHIEFDOM, Sierra Leone (Reuters) – Chief Aiah
Lebbie weighs a small but heavy pile of metallic flakes
glistening in the palm of his hand.
It is gold, found by small-scale or artisanal diamond
miners in the tailings of a diamond gravel pit in Nimikor,
Lebbie’s chiefdom, in Sierra Leone’s eastern province.
Unaware of soaring gold prices on international markets and
more concerned with looking for diamonds, miners sell these
flakes to the chief for a just a few dollars.
“People are so obsessed with diamonds in Sierra Leone, they
overlook the value and abundance of this gold,” Lebbie said.
“They think in the short term, the quick fix of finding a
single diamond, but really with gold the long-term potential is
enormous.”
Sierra Leone is notorious for its “blood diamonds” which
helped fuel a brutal 1991-2002 civil war, made famous by images
of drugged child soldiers and mutilated civilians.
Diamonds are now at the heart of a burgeoning mining sector
as the country tries to recover from the war and combat
poverty, but geologists say Sierra Leone’s untapped gold
potential may even exceed that of diamonds.
Gold has been uncovered in the north, east and south of the
country, but the size of the deposits is not yet known.
No gold mining licenses have been issued and there are no
official exporters — even though the Ministry of Mines and
Mineral Resources reported 2005 exports of some $250,000.
The government says it does not know how much gold is being
produced. But it suspects production and exports are far
greater than the amount being declared.
“Perhaps the rest is being smuggled,” said Mohamed
Mansaray, director of the Geological Surveys Department.
REGIONAL CURRENCY
In the absence of a regional single currency, gold allows
trade between the poor nations of West Africa, offering
security from the vagaries of local exchange rate fluctuations.
With no manufacturing industry of its own, Sierra Leone
buys light manufactured goods from neighboring Guinea, and
experts say much of its gold heads north over the border in
return.
That means the treasury misses out on any export levies,
which could help fund government efforts to rebuild the country
after years of civil war.
One mineral sector observer said the government may be
reluctant to interfere in such informal transactions for fear
of upsetting cross-border trade, which is essential to meet
local demand and which provides a livelihood for thousands of
traders.
“But it’s also possible that some people are getting a cut
from trade between the two countries, or that gold is being
exported illegally from Sierra Leone which would explain the
low export figures,” said the observer, who declined to be
named.
Official connivance in systematic abuse of mineral wealth
should set alarm bells ringing in the former British colony.
Widespread government corruption is generally believed to
have been a major factor in triggering the war, in which rebels
backed by neighboring Liberia’s leading warlord Charles Taylor
seized the eastern diamond fields.
Gold never made many headlines during the conflict but some
believe it played as significant a role as diamonds in
bankrolling the fighting.
Since Sierra Leone began regulating its diamond industry
and joined the anti-blood diamond Kimberley Process in 2003,
illegal mining and smuggling have been reduced and official
exports have risen from $1.2 million in 1999 to over $140
million in 2005.
That has helped the post-war economy grow by more than 7
percent per annum in the past three years.
But official gold production has failed to keep pace, and
the lack of regulations is a hurdle.
“People are also getting away with (smuggling gold) as no
questions are being asked,” said Lawrence Ndola-Myers,
government diamond valuer at the Gold and Diamond Department.
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