News

London Mining company has signed a US$110 million royalty agreement with BlackRock's World Mining Trust for iron ore sales from its Marampa mine in Lunsar, Port Loko district. It led to a 16% jump in shares to 172 pence for the iron ore miner.

The royalty is 2 per cent and is based on sales over the whole life of the company.

London Mining will get the money three days after expected completion on August 3 while the first royalty payment will be calculated on sales from the quarter ending 30 September 2012.

The Executive Director of the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change (ABC) Secretariat, Dr Ivan Ajibola Thomas has bemoaned the “rampant manifestation of negative attitudes at all levels of Sierra Leone, more so educational institutions, traditional organisations, Sierra Leone Police, contractors, transport sector, justice system, politics and mining sector among others”.

The Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff of ECOWAS Member States has endorsed the report and outcome of the Technical Assessment Mission to Mali and called for international support for the planned deployment of an ECOWAS Mission in Mali (MICEMA) to help restore the country’s national integrity and return constitutional order.

According to release from ECOWAS, the Committee also fixed 9^th August 2012 for a final planning conference in Mali in preparation for the deployment of the 3,000-strong troops.

The wife of the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Mrs. Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, has called for synergy, complementarity, strong partnership and collaboration between the African First Ladies Peace Mission and the Commission for the promotion of continental peace and development, according to a press release from ECOWAS.

Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana has denied allegations against him contained in a stinging letter from a former associate.

At his first ever press conference since becoming vice president nearly five years ago, Sam-Sumana denied allegations made by American businessman Mark Heiligman. In an open letter circulated last week and distributed at the VP's press conference early this week, Heiligman accuses the vice president of being a “thief” whom he says has “stolen” from Sierra Leoneans and from his current and former business partners.

The Dakar-based West Africa Democracy Radio project is fraught with teething problems that have forced over a dozen staff to resign in the last three months three of them in July alone. The station, set up in 2005, is currently off air and staff have not been paid for two months and some of them have had their homes in Dakar disconnected from the national electricity grid. Correspondents have been asked to stop sending in reports because the station is fraught with problems.