Authorities and landowning families in Nongowa Chiefdom say they are holding the line on peace while Parliament investigates a standoff between JM Mining Kenema Company SL Limited and government regulators over mining rights in the area.
The matter is now before the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Mineral Resources following a stakeholders’ engagement in Kenema last week. At that meeting, JM Mining and officials from the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources and the National Minerals Agency each presented their positions on operations, licensing, land use agreements and community engagement in parts of Nongowa.
After hearing both sides, the committee told all parties to maintain peace and avoid any action that could escalate tensions while its probe continues.
“We have listened to JM Mining; we have listened to the Ministry and the NMA. Our role now is to review the facts and come out with findings and recommendations to Parliament,” a senior committee official told stakeholders. “In the meantime, we are calling on everyone in Nongowa Chiefdom to maintain peace.”
Both the Ministry and the NMA confirmed they had made submissions regarding JM Mining’s compliance. JM Mining also laid out its account of the dispute.
Local authorities and landowners welcomed the committee’s intervention and urged residents to remain law-abiding.
“We are the custodians of the land. This issue affects our people directly: jobs, environment, and development,” a representative of Nongowa Chiefdom authorities said. “The committee has asked us to be patient. We are waiting for their report.
“We don’t want conflict. We want clarity, and we want development that respects the people of Nongowa,” the chiefdom representative added.
The dispute has drawn wide attention in Kenema District, where mining is a key economic activity.
A few weeks ago, traditional authorities in Nongowa appealed to President Julius Maada Bio to intervene and reinstate JM Mining’s operations licence. They warned that revoking the company’s rights after nine years of investment would punish a credible investor and reward newcomers with no record in the area.
Chiefdom leaders told the committee that JM Mining has operated in Nongowa for nine years, completed extensive exploration, and delivered community projects before full-scale mining. According to them, the company constructed a 9-kilometre road and provided support to health facilities, schools and agricultural cooperatives.
“We consider them to be credible investors, awaiting the development of the mine to do much more for the larger host setting,” the authorities said. They noted JM Mining holds a 25-year surface lease agreement signed in 2023.
Tensions rose after reports that the Ministry, under Minister Hon. Julius Daniel Mattai, granted an operational licence for the same site to a Chinese firm. Community leaders say that decision was made without meeting the prior exploration and commercial discovery requirements set out in Sierra Leone’s Mines and Minerals Development Act.
Under the Act, a company seeking a large-scale or small-scale mining licence must first hold an exploration licence, conduct testing to establish economic viability, and demonstrate a commercial discovery before conversion. Exceptions are allowed only through public tender for a combined licence, or through Cabinet approval for minerals deemed essential to national security or public well-being. Even then, the holder must still commence exploration and meet environmental and operational requirements before production.
The Ministry revoked JM Mining’s licence offer, citing alleged non-payment of certain fees within a stipulated period.
Chiefdom leaders acknowledged temporary financial difficulties but said the company has since secured funding and notified the Ministry of its readiness to settle outstanding payments and proceed with mine development.
In a recent petition to President Bio, Nongowa leaders argued that withdrawing the offer after nearly a decade of work, and reallocating rights to parties with no prior investment, amounts to a “blatant injustice.”
They accused the Ministry and the NMA of attempting to impose a new company on the chiefdom. The petition alleges officials tried to impose new investors “based upon a fraudulent misrepresentation of our consent.”
According to the chiefdom, neither landowners nor the Paramount Chief agreed to host the new applicants.
“The pressure to accept these newcomers is most distasteful and unacceptable,” the petition reads, warning the move undermines community rights, the authority of the Paramount Chief, and risks creating tensions.
A Kenema resident who spoke to The Informant Newspaper echoed the concern: “The Ministry’s decision tends to deter investors from Sierra Leone. JM Mining Company is fully capacitated financially and human resource-wise to continue its work for the people of Kenema.”
In their letter to President Bio, the chiefdom urged him to weigh JM Mining’s long history of investment and community support, and its current capacity to meet obligations, rather than enforce the decision on strict legal technicalities.
“Let us not turn them away so heartlessly, Mr President,” the letter concludes. “On behalf of the people of Nongowa Chiefdom, your trusting and supportive subjects.”
The Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources and the NMA are responsible for policy oversight and regulation; Parliament’s Committee on Mines and Mineral Resources provides legislative oversight and investigates contentious mining matters referred to it.
Committee members said they will now consolidate evidence from the Kenema engagement, review documents submitted by all parties, and prepare a report with recommendations for Parliament.
For Nongowa leaders, the case is framed not only as a licensing dispute, but as a test of whether long-term, community-backed investment will be protected, or displaced in favour of new entrants who, in their view, contributed nothing to the discovery or to the social fabric of the area.