By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Director General of the National Minerals Agency (NMA), Julius Mattai says the country will receive a full set of processed and interpreted geophysical data by the first week of August. He was speaking during the handing-over ceremony of the processed data by the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources on Thursday.
The data has been gathered right through 2019 after the Government of Sierra Leone commissioned an airborne geophysical survey; using planes to do mapping all across the country. The survey is part of the US$20 million Extractive Industries Technical Assistance Project (EITAP) that is funded by the World Bank.
“This is a process; this is not the finished product yet”, the NMA boss said while receiving the processed data. He added: “Beyond this there is work going on now, we contracted Xcalibur who subcontracted Patterson Grant and Watson to do the interpretation, reason being we don’t have the required knowledge and skills in country to do that. That process is not expected to be completed until the first week in August.”
When the data interpretation is completed the entire geophysical data of the country will be managed by the NMA. Mattai announced plans to train Sierra Leoneans to manage the data.
Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Foday Rado Yokie said the results of the data would give the country the required knowledge to negotiate for its minerals from a position of strength.
“We have always relied on individual investors to provide us survey data. In many cases, it’s they who tell us what we have and when you go in to that kind of negotiations, you enter in to them from a position of weakness, because you are not informed,” he said.
“We have been disadvantaged because we lack the knowledge,” Mr Yokie added.
NMA says when the data interpretation is complete it will also benefit sectors like lands, agriculture and water.
Director of Geological Survey at the NMA, Prince Cuffey said the data promised to be among the very best in the world
“Our survey is the best in the world, because the line spacing is 150 meters and the closest to that is 200 meters,” Cuffey said. He said once completed the data would be a game changer in the mining sector.
“In geological sense this is quite significant for us. Before now we didn’t have such information. Now with this data the cost of exploration for companies will even be cheaper. When you come in you buy data that is related to where you want to work and that’s it,” he said.
The planes that were used flew just 50 meters away from the surface to get a very high resolution during the data collection process, say NMA officials.
Sierra Leone has largely relied on geophysical survey data that was done by British authorities as far back as in the 1930s. This is the first time the country has undertaken such a survey on its own.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
