By Saio Marrah
A Member of Parliament, Abdul Karim Kamara, representing Constituency 069, Port Loko District, has presented a petition letter to the house parliament on behalf of the land owners of his constituents calling for the cancelation of the mining license of CTC Company.
The landowners of the Bauxite mineral mining communities of Maforki Chiefdom in Port Loko District said they were left out in the deliberations.
Land owners in the petition stated that: “The House of Parliament institutes investigation for consequences of apparent conflict of interest of the Director General of the National Minerals Agency by day and Managing Director by night at Integems. It is interesting to note that over 50% of all major large scale mining licences issued over the last few years by ElA (Environmental Impact Assessment) were done by Integems.”
They also alleged that over 50% of all major large scale mining licences issued over the last few years had their ElAs done by INTEGEMS.
The community people also called on EPA’s process of collecting licensing fees and awarding several EIA licences for related concessions with the same coordinates be investigated.
The petition letter was presented to the house of parliament on Tuesday 22nd November, 2022.
The letter further states: “We the People of Maforki Chiefdom wish to register our displeasure and utter dismay at the hurried and non-consultative way INTEGEMS had conducted the Public Disclosure on 28th of October 2022 in Maforki chiefdom regarding the Port Loko bauxite mining concession on behalf of TC mining Company.”
The people called for parliament’s timely intervention to address the anomaly before such a lease agreement is tabled before the house for ratification.
They said: “The community has never met with the owners of CTC Mining Company nor had any favourable discussion with Integems (the Environmental Impact Assessment Consultants) for the award of such a licence,” it reads.
It also pointed out that during the Public disclosure in Maforki on the 28th of October, 2022, the community out rightly rejected the Public disclosure, which ended the meeting abruptly.
“We are very concerned that an EIA licence was hurriedly awarded to CTC Mining Company without a legally signed lease agreement by the Landowners of our chiefdom, a condition we believe is a prerequisite for the application for an EIA license,” the letter continues.
The petition letter also pointed out that they are also worried about the speed at which the entire EIA study was conducted and expressed their disaffection over the speed at which EPA issued an EIA licence to CTC Mining.
“We believe the service charter of EPA was breached in the process and despite our letter (copy of the letter attached) to the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources that copied the National Minerals Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Advisory Board and other relevant authorities, our concerns were not taken into consideration,” the lawmaker read out the letter.
The petition letter also noted that the company disregarded their rights as Landowners and inhabitants in the proposed mining area.
“We also want to highlight that our community is concerned why Indigenes Mining and Oil and Gas Company that got its environmental impact assessment licence from EPA on the 26th of August 2022 for the same area, but its application was not sent to the Minerals Advisory Board for months until after CTC Mining Company submitted its application, ”the people argued.
According to them, the indigenous Sierra Leoneans should be given preferential consideration or support to participate and benefit from their endowed resources and that parliament should be mindful of the financial and technical requirements of foreign partners.
A letter written by the landowners to the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, dated 28th October, 2022, titled”Displeasure in Marampa Chiefdom and Maforki Chiefdom Over Public Disclosure of CTC Mining (SL) LTD on the 27th and 28th October, 2022” indicated that the they are informing ministry that their chiefdoms do not want CTC mining to proceed further in its current hasty process to secure the rights to mine, explore and carry mining related activities in their chiefdoms.
It further indicated that ”considering the unpleasant history surrounding the award of previous mining licenses without our due input and proper due diligence by the landowners which consequently placed our people in a disadvantage positions, we are extremely cautious and would jealously guard and protect the interest of our people before signing any lease agreement.”
They disclosed that the recent concluded public disclosure in their mining areaswere hastily carried out without the involvement of major stakeholders from the communities.
It also stated the people were neither aware of the occurrences nor given the opportunity to partake in such deliberation.
It also drew the attention of the Minister that both communities had never collectively signed any lease agreement with the mining company.
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