The Deputy Director General (DG) of the National Minerals Agency (NMA), Dr. Kelvin Anderson, says analysed data from the World Bank funded Nationwide Airborne Geophysical Survey (NAGS) shows that Sierra Leone has close to 200 minerals. He was speaking at a technical workshop with representative from the media, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), on the data deliverables from the survey, on Friday 17th September 2021, in Freetown.
The Deputy DG says the entire World Bank funded survey cost $7 million United States dollars but in the technical analysis, it was noticed that close to 200 minerals were identified using two gradient surveys including Magnetic and Radiometric surveys. He says after due considerations were given to international and regional pricing, government has decided to sell the entire national data to a company for $100,000 United States dollars, with terms and conditions attached to prevent re-sale of data to third parties.
Anderson says based on the fact that the country was divided into blocks during the survey, the selling price of the data varies and was further divided into three categories including national, where buyers will have full access to all the data from the survey. The second category is data per sheet, where information on the data is limited to either supplied, sheet clipped, block clipped, or not supplied, depending on the terrain, and that the third category is per block and mass block, where very few information can be accessed from the data.
The deputy Director General says cash from sales of data are paid directly to the National Revenue Authority (NRA) but acknowledged, their office is open for snappy viewing of data on areas of interest by citizens and learning institutions, as well as for investors. This he says aims at wetting viewers appetites without taking any photo but pointed out, there is no good interpretation of geophysics without ground work.
The Director of Geological Survey, Prince Cuffey, explained that the survey was done by five Air Tractors 5028 aircraft operated by Xcalibur Resources (Pty) Limited, in a cross-cut 45 degree perpendicular in a straight line spacing 150 metres. He said the survey was done using a 3D VOXI inversions up to 6,000 metres down. He says based on this, Sierra Leone now has two geological maps which include, Surficial Geology Map, and the Basement Geology Map.
Director Cuffey says the importance of the survey data is that, it has reduced the time a company could have used to do exploration as in the past, it used to be 9 years exploration period but with the data now, that has been reduced to 7 years. He said this will be more than enough for a company to decide on the scale of mining activities, as well increase their investment confidence on the ground.
It could be recalled that the data deliverables from the survey were formally launched by President Bio, on 24th May 2021, in Freetown. A follow-up to the launch is ongoing by NMA, wherein they are inviting technical representative from the public. The session presents an opportunity for representatives to see the various data deliverables from the NAGS, including maps, reports, interpretation products in greater details, and were able to also ask questions and seek for clarifications.
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