Chinese Company Defrauds Government Billions
Massive illicit sand mining is reported to be going on in Tisana and Mobureh in the Kargboro Chiefdom, Moyamba District and a Chinese Company called the West Africa Zircom Mining Company is said to be clandestinely supporting the illegitimate miners and buying the Zircom sand illegally and covertly.
Our sources revealed that the illicit miners have undermined and frustrated the operations of a licensed artisanal sand mining company that stated mining in those areas in May last year.
Our reports revealed that the Chinese-sponsored illegal miners are engaged in a very dangerous mining on the coast with little or no regard for the environmental hazard their illicit mining is causing. We have gathered that the illicit miners are extracting thousands of bags of Zircom sand from Tisana and Mobureh with the blessing and consent of the Paramount Chief, Dorris Lenga Koroma, the police and the mines officials. The West African Zircom Mining Company is reported to be illegally buying the illicitly mined sand even though the company,s business license reportedly expired in March this year and is yet to be renewed. Although two twenty-feet containers of the illegally-mined sand are reported to have been arrested and detained at the Ross Road police station, several containers of the illegal Zircom sand are reported to have been passing under the nose of the police and exported abroad with government deprived of the taxes that would have been paid.
Reports say the West African Zircom Mining Company has no license to mine or buy Zircom but the company is said to be illicitly buying and smuggling several containers of Zircom sand out of this country, by-passing the Bollore Logistics Company and conniving with some top officials of the Sierra Leone Ports Authority, SLPA.
Meanwhile, the West Africa Zircom Mining Company, the Paramount Chief, Dorris Lenga Koroma and the police are yet to respond to the allegations.
More on this story in subsequent editions.
By Joseph Milton Lebbie
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