By Hassan Ibrahim Conteh
The scarcity of stones at Metchem has forced some stone miners to painfully trek to risky locations in search of boulders to break.
Metchem Quarry is located around the Seventh Battalion Barracks in Goderich in the west end of Freetown. It was formally run by a stone mining company called Metchem. After the company’s collapse people started coming there to mine stones for their survival.
A corrugated iron sheet stood helplessly nearby a mud brick house. There was also a makeshift house in the open field where a woman was eating. She bent down to cover the leftover and hurried up to adjust her makeshift hut. The hut was made up of tattered clothes which were loosely fastened on the sticks to keep the sun out.
Just behind the hut a heap of dust which had been sieved to get smaller granite stones, is rising.
The Sobbing and throbbing hearts of these people have become so hard like the rocky stones they work on. Sometimes breaking stones to get them ready for sale comes with so much of excruciating pain.
Mohamed Koroma has been breaking stones in this community since 2011. He was previously selling wares before he took up stone mining. He decided to abandon his initial business when he realised that he couldn’t make enough profit. Now that he is into stone mining, things are no better for him. He looks frustrated and dejected!
Koroma’s right eye has been deformed as a result of a flying stone fragment. This is part of the hazards of the job. Many a stone miner, and even passers-by, has got injured by fragments during the stone breaking process.
Koroma slowly bent down to show me an injury on the big toe of his right foot. When he lifted his hands it revealed so many blisters on them. The father of five complained that hardly do they make enough money from selling stones. And he blamed this on middlemen, who are referred to as ‘contractors’, who act as intermediaries between them [stone miners] and the buyers.
He said the middlemen inflate the actual price to the buyer.
“The contractors are the ones collecting money from the buyers. For example, if they charge Le5, 000 for a head pan [which they use to measure the stones], they will come to us and insists on paying only for the price on the ground [Le2, 500],” he explained.
“After all we are the ones that suffer to break the stones; they are not doing anything. You can only see them when a buyer comes. They cheat us,” he said.
Decades of mining in Metchem means that these days stones are hard to get. This is why the miners have had to explore dangerous heights of rocks in search of breakable fragments.
Consequently, buyers have had to trek over long distances looking for stones to purchase. They go as far as the Number Two River community, a place around the Peninsula area in the extreme west end of Freetown. This way their expenditure increases. They would have to pay Le100, 000 for transporting the stones and Le100, 000 for offloading them.
The trouble of finding stones hit the miners the most. Yenkain Sesay, for instance, told Politico that it has now become difficult to get enough stone to sell and make enough money.
“I didn’t make any profit when I last sold some [stones]. Sometimes you will just want to quit but here is no other option,” he said.
There have been many reports of people falling from hilltops, where a long rope is usually fastened to help them reach the rocks.
Pa Foday, a stone crusher, recently became a victim of that. He reportedly cut his fingers after fallen from a hill.
Usually a used tyre from a vehicle, a wood, or charcoal is used in the process of breaking stones. These are used to hit up the rock to create cracks in them, making the job easier for the crushers. They often make use of chisel and sledge hammers. After that the piles of crushed stones are sold off.
The size of individual stones determines the cost of a consignment. A trip of 3 inch stone attracts Le500, 000, while half inch ones cost Le600, 000 per truck.
In the process of stone mining, those who do not have energy to break the huge stones usually dig holes on the ground to look for smaller granite stones. This mode of mining, which is involves less physical strength as stone crushing, is common among women.
She said they have to pick large quantities of stones in order to sell them.
“It’s really hard but I need the money to educate my children. Maybe in the future things will pan out well for me,” she said.
But Damba Kanu, an elderly woman in her early 70, said she could not send her son to school for the past academic year because she doesn’t work as hard as she used to.
Yandora complained of constant pain on her waist. This, she said, sometimes forced her to sit at home.
The price of a head pan varies according to its size. The ‘English Pan’ is sold at Le2, 500; the ‘Dent Pan’ goes for Le200, 000 and the ‘Coal Farm’ is sold at Le 1, 500.
Yandora said with all the trouble they go through, some of the middlemen often owe them money and some even hide from them.
“If the buyers come to us directly it would have been better because you charge them yourself. You will feel disappointed when you are paid by those middlemen,” she said.
“Last year, I was supposed to be given Le380, 000 when I sold the stones I had sieved from the dust. But up till now I’ve not yet seen the man,” she lamented.
Foday Sillah has spent 13 years in this stone mining business. He said he had been on a different business. He also mined sand. “When you have other means of getting money apart from stone mining, you will be able to gather large quantity of stones. Otherwise, you will sell the little you have when you’re in need of money,” he said.
“Stone mining needs somebody that is courageous. I’ve decided to look for another job after selling this pile,” he said, pointing at his latest consignment.
(C) Politico 25/02/16
