Sierra Leone Hosts 2026 Mining Week, Launches Critical Minerals Strategy

“The biggest risk you could take is not investing in Sierra Leone.” These were the words by Sierra Leone’s Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Julius Daniel Mattai, at the official opening of the 2026 Sierra Leone Mining Week in Freetown, featuring the 11th Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), held at the Freetown International Conference Centre starting May 19 – 23, 2026.

Inaugurated as a flagship national event in 2025, the 2026 Sierra Leone Mining Week is the second time the event has been hosted in the country.

The event brought together government leaders from Sierra Leone and across Africa, local mining companies, investors, industry experts, and the international mining community.

While Sierra Leone is aggressively pursuing investment and positioning itself as a major destination for critical minerals development, Minister Mattai stressed that the Country will firmly protect its national interests and mineral sovereignty.

“Sierra Leone is open for business, but Sierra Leone is not open for capture,” Mattai said in his opening speech.

Minister Mattai Pushes New Vision for Sierra Leone’s Mining Industry

Image: Julius Daniel Mattai, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Delivering His Speech at the Sierra Leone Mining Week 2026

Mattai said the mining sector in Sierra Leone is entering a new era in which mineral wealth must translate into real national development, stronger institutions, local value addition, and visible benefits for mining communities.

“Responsible mining without value multiplication is incomplete. Value multiplication without shared prosperity is unjust. Shared prosperity without responsible governance is unsustainable,” said Mattai.

“If we mine responsibly but export all the value, then we have lived well, but not wisely. If we create value but leave host communities behind, then we have grown revenue without growing justice,” he emphasized.

He said Africa, including Sierra Leone, must move beyond being viewed as exporters of raw mineral extraction and instead become a continent known for responsible governance, processing, and industrial transformation.

“Africa must be known as a place where minerals are governed wisely, processed competitively, traded fairly, and transformed into global sustainable development,” he stated.

“The old model exported raw value and imported dependency. The new African model must export excellence and retain prosperity.”

Mattai also stressed that Sierra Leone’s critical minerals strategy was built around four transformational pillars: empowering transformation, advancing stewardship, catalyzing shared prosperity, and securing strategic partnerships.

“These are four promises that Sierra Leone will no longer export its future as raw ore,” Mattai said.

Sierra Leone Targets $2.5 Billion Mining Investment

Image: Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh (Left) and Julius Daniel Mattai (Right)

Since Mattai took office in 2023, Sierra Leone has seen a surge in mining export value, with $900 million worth of mineral exports in 2023, %1.13 billion in 2024, and $1.3 billion, a 16% year-over-year increase.

To back up the surge of mineral export value, the National Strategy for Critical Minerals 2026–2031 will position Sierra Leone as a strategic player in the rapidly growing global market for critical minerals.

Sierra Leone possesses significant deposits of lithium, graphite, bauxite, cobalt, coltan, rutile, diamonds, iron ore, and rare earth elements.

Despite the mining industry’s upward trajectory, Mattai emphasised that mineral wealth alone does not guarantee prosperity.

“Mineral endowment alone does not create prosperity. Governance does. Strategy does. Infrastructure does. Laws do. Skills do. Partnerships do,” he said.

“Minerals in the ground are only potential. Minerals governed well become prosperity.”

Vice President Juldeh Jalloh Calls for Mining to Drive Positive Transformation

Image: Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh at the Sierra Leone Mining Week 2026

Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh delivered the keynote address and officially launched the Sierra Leone National Strategy for Critical Minerals 2026–2031, one of Sierra Leone’s most ambitious mining roadmaps aimed at transforming the country into one of the world’s leading sources and producers of critical minerals. 

The strategy seeks to attract $2.5 billion in exploration and mining investment in Sierra Leone, establish three to five mineral processing plants, create 45,000 direct and indirect jobs, train 15,000 skilled workers, generate more than $300 million in annual government revenue, and achieve $1.5 billion in annual exports from processed and value-added mineral products by 2031.

Dr Jalloh said even though Sierra Leone’s mining sector generated approximately $1.12 billion in mineral exports in 2024, the country must improve how much value and revenue remain within the national economy.

He said Sierra Leone’s mineral wealth must not only bring the purchase of their licenses just to mine and leave our country. I believe “redistributed” supports food security, infrastructure, youth employment, technology, strong institutions, and human capital development.

“Our national vision is that mineral wealth must translate into jobs, skills, enterprise development, infrastructure, tools for services, and dignified livelihoods for citizens, particularly in mining communities.”

“We want to make this visible and transparent as much as possible so communities can access information on what they are receiving,” he said.

Push for Value Addition and Local Participation

Dr Jalloh said Sierra Leone must move away from the traditional model of exporting raw minerals and instead prioritize local processing and value addition.

“The future of Sierra Leone’s mining sector cannot simply be to extract and export raw materials. Value addition must increasingly become part of the national agenda,” he said.

“No new large-scale mining agreement will be concluded without a binding commitment to value addition.”

He also emphasized the importance of shared infrastructure, stronger state participation, local content, and formalizing artisanal mining.

Dr Jalloh said more than 120,000 Sierra Leoneans depend on artisanal mining for their livelihoods.

“These miners are not outside the economy. They are part of it,” he said.

Sierra Leone Positions Itself as Regional Mining Hub

Mining Week 2026 is expected to continue with panel discussions, exhibitions, and strategic meetings focused on financing, infrastructure, energy, environmental governance, regional integration, women in mining, community development, and Africa’s future role in the global mining industry.

As global demand for critical minerals accelerates, Sierra Leone is attempting to reposition itself not simply as a source of raw materials but as an emerging African hub for responsible mining, regional cooperation, value addition, and long-term industrial transformation.

“We are a rich country, a rich continent,” he said in his closing speech.

“It is time we become a prosperous country and a prosperous continent.”

About Sierra Leone Mining Week 2026

Image: Sierra Leone Mining Week 2026 at the Freetown International Conference Centre

The Sierra Leone Mining Week, launched in April 2025 and hosted its inaugural Mining Week, held from April 8 – 12, alongside the 10th Ordinary Meeting of the ADPA, is an annual national platform that brings together government institutions, mining companies, investors, financiers, development partners, regulators, researchers, civil society organizations, mining communities, and young professionals to discuss the future of Sierra Leone’s mining sector.

The 2026 edition focused heavily on responsible mining, critical minerals, regional cooperation, value addition, environmental stewardship, community development, and Africa’s role in the global energy transition.

It also featured exhibitions, investment discussions, technical panels, and policy conversations around infrastructure, financing, arbitration, local content, women in mining, youth participation, and technological innovation in the extractive sector.

Government officials described the event as more than just a mining conference, calling it a strategic national platform aimed at repositioning Sierra Leone’s mineral wealth as a driver of industrialisation, economic diversification, and long-term national development.

About the 11th Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of ADPA

Image: ADPA Ministers, Vice President Juldeh Jalloh, Minister Mattai, Chief Minister David Sengeh, and Mining Investors

The 2026 Sierra Leone Mining Week also hosted the 11th Ordinary Meeting of ADPA, bringing together ministers and representatives from 15 member states and 7 observing member states, diamond-producing African nations, and observer states.

Sierra Leone currently serves as Chair of ADPA, with the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Julius Daniel Mattai, being the chair.

ADPA was established in 2006 to strengthen cooperation among African diamond-producing countries, harmonise mining policies, promote responsible diamond governance, encourage legal and technical collaboration, and improve Africa’s position within the global diamond industry.

During his address, Minister Mattai said member countries and observers collectively account for nearly 70 per cent of global rough diamond production.

He said the organisation has become increasingly important as African countries face global market pressures, certification challenges, price volatility, the rise of lab-grown diamonds, and geopolitical competition over mineral resources.

“Africa must not remain the source of minerals while others monopolize the standards, the systems, the fees, the data, the processing, and the strategic leverage around them,” Mattai said.

He also highlighted the importance of regional integration through ECOWAS, the African Continental Free Trade Area, the African Mining Vision, and the African Green Minerals Strategy.