Location: Sierra Leone is located in west Africa and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea and Liberia.

Area: Approximately 71,740 sq km.

Capital: The capital city is Freetown.

Climate & Terrain: Tropical, warm dry winters and hot, wet summers.  The terrain includes costal belt of mangrove swamps, with wooded hill land in the centre and uplands and mountains in the east of the country.

Population: Approximately 5.7 million (Jul 03).

Official Language: English.

Major Ethnic Groups: 20 native African tribes over 90%.

Religions: Indigenous beliefs 30%, Muslim 60%, Christian 10%.

Currency: The local currency is the leone (SLL), which is pegged to the Euro at a rate of SLL 3,184 to 1 Euro (Apr 04).

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): US$2.8 billion (02).

Industries: Sierra Leone is an extremely poor country. It does have substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, however the economic and social infrastructure is not well developed and economic development has been hampered by the previous 11 year civil war.

The major source of hard currency consists of the mining of diamonds, in the past gold production in Sierra Leone derived mainly from alluvials. Due to the civil war Sierra Leone missed out on the exploration boom of the 1990's however, recently there are plans to reopen the bauxite and rutile mines that were shutdown during the conflict, and there has been several foreign companies exploring for gold in the country of late.

Exports: Sierra Leone's main exports are diamonds, rutile, cocoa, coffee and fish and exports amount to US$35 million per annum (02).

Infrastructure: Sierra Leone has a 11,000 km network of mainly laterite roads that provides routine access to most parts of the country. There are no direct flights to Freetown from Europe, however several regional airlines have scheduled flights to Sierra Leone from neighboring west African states. 

Government: Since 1991 the country has undergone several insurgencies however, after a few setbacks, the 11-year conflict seems to be near at hand. With the support of the United Nations, the British Government and contributions from the World Bank, demobilisation and disarmament of the combatants has been completed. National elections were held in May 2002 and the government continues to reestablish its authority.

Regulatory Environment for Mining

To be updated ...