1 Comment 
The Government of Sierra Leone, under the directives of President Julius Maada Bio, has dissolved the Mineral Wealth Fund [MWFSL] as part of a major effort to restructure the management of the country’s strategic mining assets.
The move comes less than two years after the government signed a USD 300 million agreement with China Overseas Engineering Group Company Limited (COVEC) to develop the Tonkolili North Iron Ore Deposit. Between 2024 and 2025, the Fund entered into agreements with COVEC to finance mine construction, transport networks, and beneficiation facilities.
Under the President’s directive, operational control of Tonkolili North will now be transferred to state institutions, and the management services agreement with MountView Konzern Management DMCC has been terminated. Officials say the government plans to conduct a competitive bidding process to identify a new strategic partner for the project.
The Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development confirmed that while international contracts will need to be reviewed, the restructuring aims to enhance transparency, strengthen oversight, and ensure long-term public benefit from Sierra Leone’s mineral resources.
Industry analysts note that the Tonkolili North project, one of Sierra Leone’s most valuable mineral assets, will serve as a test case for the government’s renewed approach to natural resource management.
Welcome move by the president, there’s further hope that positive stances like these be hastily expanded to encapsulate every extractive industries nationwide to secure more favorable returns to benefit the nation as a whole. Gradually, we will gravitating towards the Pan African modus operandi with the popular slogan: Africa for Africans, Sierra Leone for Sierra Leoneans. Time for us to take back what belongs to us, we should be thinking of adding values to our raw materials to stem the massive exports of jobs to other countries, while we in SL continue to wallow in excruciating poverty.