The Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Mines and Mineral Resources last week toured a number of mining companies and their operational areas to get firsthand information on their operations and how they are relating with stakeholders and the community people.
The oversight visit was done in two major districts: Kono and Port Loko respectively and it gave members of the Committee the opportunity to interface with the companies’ officials and to also know some of the challenges the community people were facing.
According to the Committee chairman, Hon. Saa Emmerson Lamina who also doubles as the Leader of the Coalition for Change (C4C), the tour was in relation to the enactment of a new legislation.
He emphasized that the intention to review the current Mining Act did not mean it was a bad law but that it could no longer embrace the new trend and felt needs of the people in those mining communities.
Hon. Saa Emmerson said the government wanted an Act that could stand the test of time to benefit the country and the people living in those mining areas.
He explained that though the minerals could not make an environment great but their utilization backed with strong mining policies and that mining could make a country and its people better. He stated that mining started long years ago but the community people were not getting the required benefits from the sector.
The chairman disclosed that it was the mandate of the Committee to know the level of compliance by the stakeholders, as the government needed huge revenue to roll out its programmes.
According to Hon. Amadu Kanu representing the All People’s Congress (APC), the visit by the Committee was not only to protect the interest of the government but the interest of the investors who were putting huge amount of money to invest into the sector.
He said the formulation of the new mines policy would also enhance the sector for a win-win situation in order to ensure sanity in the mining communities, adding that the government was ambitious to undertake development and improve the sector.
The Coalition for Change Member of Parliament, Hon. Musa Fofanah, underscored the contribution of the mining sector in the country’s GDP but said due to the current situation it had now been reduced.
Other members of the Committee also asked critical questions and concerns, especially ones regarding the lives and safety of the community people in those mining areas. The Parliamentary Committee assured the community people to do everything within their remit to create that platform.
Among the visited mining companies were Koidu Limited; Wong or Investment and Mining Cooperation Limited in Komaro village; Seawright Mining at Sewafe Town; Sierra Amin Mining Bauxite; Marampa and among others.
