Reuters reported that on the fifth floor of Sierra Leone's main government office building, a decaying hulk where working toilets are scarce and the lift unreliable.

Mines director Mr Jonathan Sharkah told Reuters during a recent interview in his office in the Youyi Building, which towers over its corner of the seaside capital Freetown that "It means a lot to us. Lots of revenue, lots of employment, and lots of everything."

To redeem this promise, however, Sierra Leone will need to fight an uphill battle to avoid the 'resource curse' of high level graft, civil unrest and a lack of economic diversity that has afflicted many regional neighbors, whose economies depend on their rich deposits of metals or oil.

A recent bribery scandal in the office of the vice president, along with worries the government is not up to the mammoth task of overseeing the industry, have sparked fears ordinary Sierra Leoneans will miss out on the boom.

Mr Unisa Sesay, a spokesman for President Ernest Bai Koroma, said that "We are making a genuine effort to make sure we don't make mistakes that others have made. We are not waiting for the problems to happen before we start addressing them."

Sierra Leone holds some of the world's richest iron ore deposits, but the industry ground to a halt ahead of a 1991-2002 civil war that claimed some 50,000 lives and ruined its infrastructure and exports stopped.

That changed last autumn with the first shipment in more than two decades, a major step for a country eager to rebuild and create jobs and a potential boost for Koroma as he seeks re election in November 2011.

The International Monetary Fund predicts that, with the onset of mineral revenues, Sierra Leone's gross domestic product will grow by a staggering 51.4% in 2012, a rate that could prove the highest in the world.

(Sourced from www.reuters.com)