By Bobor Dan Kamara
FG Gold Mining, a large-scale commercial gold mining company, has come under the spotlight for its alleged corrupt practices and inhuman treatment of local miners at Baomahum Village and Valunia Chiefdom, Bo District.
Allegations from the people of Valunia and the surrounding chiefdoms state that the said company has been boycotting its contribution to the Community Development Fund (CDF), a scheme meant for the development of the community in which it is operating.
Sources say modern slavery is going on at Baomahun Gold Project as local workers undergo inhuman treatment, a practice that kicks against Part XIX subsection 145 of the Mines and Mineral Development Act 2022.
Reports state that salaries of local miners are incommemorate with the Sierra Leone minimum wage.
“Safety measures are not observed as most of the workers are left with the option to either buy safety equipment for themselves or bear the consequences that may befall them,” one youth activist said.
Sources say a private company is operating at the said 124.27 km mining site on the pretext of acting as a subsidiary group to FG Gold Mining but is focused on excavating lithium and some other minerals.
Locals are dwelling in abject poverty while their minerals are being exported by foreigners aided by their own community people.
Our sources say most of FG’s foreign experts are hostile to the community people while they lack a working permit to operate in Sierra Leone.
A reliable source states that another mining company has been on the prospecting stage since they started operation years back. This is one of the reasons some mining activists have been questioning the effectiveness of the monitoring strides of the National Mineral Agency (NMA).
The source further states that the road leading to the mining site is in a deplorable condition, not to mention the 64km Matotoka Road passing through Yele to Mongeri which is part of the Community Development Agreement between the community and the FG Gold company that covers a space in Tonkolili District.
Sources reveal that agricultural activates are at a standstill because incentives promised to local farmers are yet to be paid. Most of the cultivated land areas are being converted into mining sites, with little or no dividend for the local people.
Sources go on to state that major streams and rivers are being contaminated, making them unfit for the growth and reproduction of aquatic plants.
All organized efforts by this medium to access information from the said company and to have the Right to Access to Information Commission to compel FG Gold Mining to open up on their activities proved futile.
