This land use case was issued by Lukey Kwadraat

Tonkolili iron ore mine – Sierra Leone

  • The Tonkolili iron ore mine is owned by the Chinese SISG group. The mine was initially developed by African Minerals Ltd who where forced to hand over their 75% interest in the mine to SISG in 2015 due to poor economic outlooks at the time. SISG was already owning 25% of the shares. It is said that the Tonkolili project holds Africa’s largest iron ore deposit which is supposed to be the worlds third largest deposit. Iron ore is transported to the port of Pepel through the Tonkolili – Pepel railway line. This railway was constructed by African Minerals and is only used by freight trains. In the course of 2012 not only the Tonkolili mine but also the Marampa iron ore mine (located near Lunsar and owned by Cape Lambert Ltd) gained rights to access to the railway line and the port of Pepel.
  • The Tonkolili mine is located in the 01-2010 Mining Lease (originally issued to Tonkolili Iron Ore (SL) Limited, initially an African minerals company, now a SISG company). This Mining Lease is divided into an A and B part. ML 01A-2010 holds 107 km², ML 01B-2010 holds 125 km².

Company website

The Shandong Iron&Steel Group website (in Chinese) can be found here.

tonkolili

Characteristics of investment

The Tonkolili mine is located approximately 35 km northeast of Makeni, Sierra Leone.

Investment: Tonkolili iron ore mine- Sierra Leone
Investor:  SISG (100% ownership)
Country of origin: China
Mineral iron ore
Purpose iron ore mining
Acreage (according to company) unknown
Acreage (on map) approx. 8.4 km²
Employment (according to company) unknown
Benefits for local communities
unknown
Disadvantages for local communities
unknown
Affected communities
unknown