The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr Priscilia Schwartz has denied claims that the Government of Sierra Leone has lost a case against Chinese Iron Miner Shandong at an international tribunal.
Unconfirmed news circulating on social media some few days ago had indicated that the Government of Sierra Leone had lost a case against Shandong and hence fined a whooping sum of $ 800 million in damages.
Government through its legal adviser, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice has informed the general public that they are not involved in any case with the Chines Iron Miner contrary to claims on social media.
The Attorney General has also used the occasion to state that they are involved in three separate arbitration tribunals in the US and UK respectively with SL Mining/Gerald International Group.
Government has emphasized that this is the first time since the discovery of minerals in Sierra Leone that they are resisting very powerful business interests and also insisting on their rights to regulate its mining activities and the rule of law at an international arbitration.
The Government of Sierra Leone has cancelled the Mining Licenses of SL Mining operating in the North of the country on the grounds that they have exported Iron Ore to a third party company and paid pittance to Government.
The above disagreement later led to an export ban on the company for a considerable number of months.
SL mining on their part had maintained that their actions were in line with the MLA and the laws of Sierra Leone and later ceased operations.
This led government to terminate the licenses of the Company to operate in the country.
SL Mining has since challenged the decisions at two separate arbitrations in the US and won but government has since failed to honour the decisions of such rulings and had recently contracted a British Law firm to defend the government.
It is reported that the law firm has presented a jurisdictional argument at a UK arbitration.The consequences if government loses this third arbitration in the UK would be disastrous for a government that is merely copying to run a battered economy.