Freezing order over Sierra Leone's Koidu mine extended amid strike and closure

A freezing order preventing Sierra Leone's Koidu Limited from selling or disposing of its assets was extended again in August 2025, deepening a standoff between the diamond miner, its striking workforce and a community that has accused the company of environmental damage and asset stripping.

The order stems from a lawsuit first filed in 2019 by residents grouped as Marginalised Affected Property Owners, who allege that Koidu's kimberlite operations in the Kono district damaged their land, health and livelihoods without adequate compensation. Sierra Leone's High Court dismissed the case in 2022, but it remained under appeal, and by 2025 the underlying dispute had become entangled with a separate industrial crisis at the mine.

Mine mothballed, workers strike

In March 2025, Koidu Limited placed the mine into care and maintenance, and Sierra Leone's Workers Union later reported that 17 pieces of vital mining equipment had been removed from the site — a claim that fed community and union fears the company intended to strip the asset rather than restart it. The dispute drew in national politics: the country's first lady, Fatima Bio, joined striking miners in a show of solidarity, while Koidu's leadership, including chief executive Dag Cramer, pushed back on the allegations.

Numbers in dispute

Koidu Limited has claimed $16 million in lost revenue from the closure and has separately demanded $20 million from other parties to cover recommissioning costs and damages, underlining how much financial exposure now sits on both sides of the dispute. Labour minister Mohamed Rahman Swaray became involved in efforts to mediate between the company and its workforce.

Why it matters beyond Kono

Koidu is one of the few hard-rock kimberlite operations in a country whose diamond industry has historically been dominated by small-scale and artisanal alluvial digging. Its troubles illustrate a wider tension across West Africa's diamond sector between formal, capital-intensive mining and the communities that host it, at a moment when weak global prices leave companies with less room to absorb the cost of community claims or prolonged shutdowns. With the freezing order in place and the underlying case still working its way toward trial, Koidu's assets remain in legal limbo even as the mine sits idle.

Sources

• OCCRP: Freezing Injunction on Sierra Leone's Diamond Producer Koidu Ltd Extended, 04 Aug 2025

Photo: Aerial view of Freetown, Sierra Leone, whose courts are hearing the long-running Koidu diamond mine case. David Hond, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.