It is clear that the objective of bringing in a third party to manage a railway (Pepel Railway) which was originally laid and managed by Africa Minerals Ltd. is a desperate move by the government to frustrate mining companies that are currently reliant on this railway to move their products to the Pepel port for export. The reason for this, only they will know.
According to very competent mining experts, taking away the operations of the Pepel Railway from its former manager King Ho Mining Company (which took over from Africa Minerals Ltd.) will simply bring about extra burden on the mining companies relying on the railway to move their products.
Such a deal between the government and a little-known ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd. will definitely spiral a whole lot of fresh problems for mining companies such as rise in tax, increase in payment for labor, cut in their CSR performance, increase in payment for the use of the railway among other negative issues.
A cursory check on ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd. reveals that it has no experience in managing mining or railway facilities and neither doe it have any track record of working anywhere on the globe and leaving a mark for reference.
This begs the question: Where did our government drag this unknown ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd. to make it lord over our Pepel Railway operations?
As matters now stand, one major mining company Vimetco has been forced to shut or at least drastically reduce its operations as a result of huge extra freight costs it is being charged to haul its product to the Pepel Port by use of the railway.
In fact, most of the managers in these mining concessions agree that the agreement between the government and ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd. is very unfair because it is very disadvantageous and burdensome as they will now need to spend more n transporting their goods and this additional costs will adversely affect all other aspects of their operations.
The reality is that ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd., which does not have any iota or experience in mining and railway management will simply be making profit at the expense of the real, hard-working mining companies that are ensuring that they perform their corporate social responsibilities to make the lives of the community people safe, secure and progressive.
Government is therefore being urged to rethink its deal with ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd. for the overall good of the community people and Sierra Leone as a whole.
None of the 7 Directors from the Board of ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms Ltd presented on such important singing agreement with a whole Government (Country) only to be represented (if) Jesper Boll, the Manager of Logistics Value Chain at Arise IIP. This showed the lack of seriousness by the company for the government and the people of Sierra Leone.
