232news
By Thomas Dixon
The Government of Julius Maada Bio has 10 days to respond to an international suit against them in the International Court of Arbitration. The writ was 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 and already 18 days have elapsed.
Sierramin Bauxite took the Government of Sierra Leone to the International Court of Arbitration for breaching certain conditions in the mining agreement which they signed with them. 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.
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.
Not long ago, the Government of Sierra Leone sought an out-of-court settlement when SL Mining now Marampa Mines took the government to court, but it seems as if the government did not learn anything from that.
