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By Thomas Dixon –
Following the failure of the current Parliament of Sierra Leone to come out with its findings on the mining contract that the Ministry of Mines and National Mineral Agency (NMA) signed with CTC Mining Company ditching the original holder of the License, Sierramin Bauxite has taken the Government of Sierra Leone to the International Court of Arbitration.
SALONE TIMES Newspaper has seen papers that have been filed against the government of Sierra Leone in the International Court of Arbitration.
The writ of summons has been sent to the government of Sierra Leone through the Minister of Mines, Musa Timothy Kabba.
Gresham legal Ltd and Robert -Jan Temmink KC FICA representing their client Sierramin Bauxite LTD, a company based in Sierra Leone filed papers against the Government of Sierra Leone for breaching a mining agreement that both parties signed.
The writ served by the London Court for International Arbitration to the Government of Sierra Leone on the 24th March 2023 for which the Government of Sierra Leone has up to 28 days to put in a defense.
It could be recalled that Sierramin Bauxite signed a Bauxite mineral prospecting and mining agreement on the 5th of December 2017.
The said agreement states, “any dispute based in whole or in part upon any part of this agreement shall be submitted to binding arbitration before 3 arbitrators of which one will be selected by each of the parties involved in the dispute and one will be appointed by two arbitrators.”
It went further to say that, “if the parties cannot agree upon a third arbitrator, one can be selected by the London Court of Arbitration (LCIA),” a process the government aborted and went to cancel the contract in 2021.
The Sierramin Bauxite license was canceled, only to be awarded to a company owned by a Lebanese Wheeler dealer Hisham Mackie.
Efforts to get the Minister of Mines to comment on this issue proved futile.
