Abstract: | Although diamond mining has had over the last ten years a considerable impact on the country, yet Sierra Leone is still predominantly an agricultural country, with a peasant subsistence economy. The evolution of the industry and its present state must necessarily be seen in this context. The exploitation of the valuable resource has not only been conditioned by physical factors, but by equally significant social and economic ones. This account successively deals with: Occurrence and Distribution; Methods and Organisation of Mining; Mechanical Mining; The Development of Native Mining; Nand-Mining; Seasonal Mining; Migration; Settlement. Figures; notes. |