Solondo bucket scandal…. SSGI implicated
The carcass of the sunk Solondo Dredge at Sierra Rutile is reported to have become the target of scrap metal thieves who have now made it an occupation to be stealing the expensive buckets off the disaster-stricken dredge.
Reports from Sierra Rutile Mine relay that several big buckets of the dredge have been looted and sold to a licensed Indian scrap metal dealer in Freetown whose name is yet to be identified.
It has also been reported that the massive theft has led to the arrest and detention of some SSGI security guards and some local authorities who are helping the police with their vigorous investigation. Each of the stolen buckets is said to weigh about fifty tons, a weight that can only be lifted by a crane and transported by a trailer. Reportedly, the heavy weight of the stolen buckets prompted the police to suspect that such gigantic metals could not have been carted away without the knowledge of the SSGI security guards who secure the fallen dredge.
The Solondo Dredge named after the warrior who liberated the Sierra Rutile area, is the largest in Sierra Leone and rated as one of the largest in the world. It sank few months after it was erected thereby inflicting heavy financial loss on the Sierra Rutile Mining Company.
By Joseph Milton Lebbie
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