The Inquirer (Monrovia)
7 September 2007
Monrovia — Despite efforts by the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy in collaboration with the international community to put in place the Kimberline Certification Scheme aimed at establishing the origin of rough diamond leaving the country, reports from the western parts of the country suggest that massive illicit mining is ongoing in mining concession areas in that part of the country.
Deputy Lands, Mines and Energy Minister, A. Kpandel Fayiah, whose office has oversight responsibility to handle the Kimberline Certification Scheme, said inspite of the success made to put in place a legitimate process for the mining and the exportation of diamonds from the country, there is still an increase in illicit mining taking place in the western Liberian areas.
Minister Fayiah made specific reference to Kumbor, a major mining concession located in Grand Cape Mount County.
Addressing the press yesterday at the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy, Minister Fayiah cautioned those involved in the illegal trade to desist or else if they were caught, they would be dealt with in accordance with the mining laws of the country.
He alluded to the fact that despite the Ministry's desire to enforce the Kimberline certification regulations, it would be difficult for the government to adequately deal with illicit mining in the country.
Minister Fayiah added that even if the entire members of the Liberian National Police (LNP) were deployed through out the country, it would be difficult to deal with the issue because as he put it, Liberia has a dense forest region, while at the same time the roads across the country are in bad condition. He stressed that to bring such a precarious situation under an immediate control would be actually difficult and would take lots of time to deal with this menace.
According to him, to help deal with the issue, the Ministry has put in place a form of 'incentives process' that would help motivate members of the public to leak out information on diamonds that have been mined and poised to be traded on the market out of the Kimberline regulations.
Minister Fayiah further stated that under the incentive process, anyone revealing such information would be offered 30% of the illicit diamonds that have not been certified by the Kimberline certification process.
The Director of Mining at the Ministry, R. Matennokay Tingban, disclosed that the result of his recent visit to Kumbor, shows that those involved in the illegal trade were people from Sierra Leone, Mali, Guinea and other places.
He said the Chairman of the local miners in the area is a Malian stressing that under the mining laws of the country, a foreigner cannot occupy such a post.
He then called on residents of local concession mining areas to organize themselves and protect their areas from the activities of these illegal miners.
Director Tingban further disclosed that since the Ministry lifted the moratorium on mining and began issuing licenses, it has so far issued only 20 licenses to class C miners while up to 3,000 applications are pending before the Ministry for consideration.
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