FREETOWN, (Reuters) – China Kingho Energy Group, one of China’s largest privately-owned energy companies, could spend between $6 and $10 billion on infrastructure projects in Sierra Leone over the next five years, its ambassador to China said.
Kingho, which is carrying out iron ore exploration in Sierra Leone, signed a memorandum (MOU) with the West African nation’s mines ministry detailing the projects last Friday.
According to the MOU, the firm plans to spend $6 billion, but Victor Foh, Sierra Leone’s ambassador to China, said the investments could be higher, with work to be completed in 2017.
“This is huge, yes $9 to $10 billion. The $6 billion is the minimum. And as long as the mining environment is good they will keep investing more and more money into the country. They said it to me personally,” Foh told Reuters on Friday.
Under the agreement, the company foresees construction of a 250km railway from the northern Tonkolili district, where it has two exploration licenses, to the coastal town of Sulima near the border with Liberia.
Other planned projects include construction of a deep-water port, a smelting facility, an industrial park and road upgrades.
The smelter would be powered by a 350-megawatt hydro-electric station to be built on the Sewa River.
“We have lagged behind for too long,” Foh said. “We have to open up to new places … China does it cheapest, fastest and best.”
Renewed interest in its largely untapped mineral resources has sparked an economic revival in Sierra Leone a decade after the end of a devastating 1991-2002 civil war.
Iron-ore shipments by British companies African Minerals , and London Mining helped fuel estimated economic growth of 20 percent last year, one of the world’s fastest growth rates.
