LONDON (Alliance News) - African Minerals Ltd and Golden Saint Resources Ltd Thursday said their operations and workforce in Sierra Leone have been unaffected by an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the country.
African Minerals said it has already implemented a range of measures to safeguard its operations but that its Tonkolili mine in the country is currently over 200 kilometres from the area affected by the outbreak.
It said it has prepared comprehensive contingency plans for all its operations and employees in case risk levels change at the Tonkolili mine, to allow its operations to continue unaffected.
Golden Saint Resources said that as far as it is aware, the virus is currently restricted to a small village in the Eastern province of Sierra Leone and its three mineral rights concessions are in areas where there have been no reported incidents of the outbreak.
It said exploration activities are proceeding as normal but that it continues to take all necessary precautions with regards to staff on the ground and continues to monitor the situation.
The news comes after their rival in the country, London Mining PLC evacuated 'non essential' staff from its operations in Sierra Leone on Tuesday in order to protect its workers from the Ebola outbreak.
On Tuesday there were roughly 50 suspected cases in Sierra Leone and five people have died, after the outbreak started in neighbouring Guinea, where it has now killed over 100 people.
African Minerals shares were down 2.2% to 89.75 pence and have fallen 18% in the last five days, Golden Saint shares were down 2.6% to 5.60 pence and London Mining shares were down 0.7% to 36.75 pence on Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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