Economic Opportunities, Environmental Costs, and Attitudes of Mining Communities: Exploratory Evidence from Two Rounds of Independent Surveys in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Mining in Sierra Leone has provided fiscal revenue and employment for the local people, but there are also problems such as land degradation, water shortage, dust pollution, disruption of traditional life, and an uneven distribution of community benefits. Two rounds of separate cross-sectional surveys investigated whether the residents of the mining area believed the economic benefits compensated for the environmental and social costs. After quality inspection, 33 of the first-round questionnaires were kept, and 40 complete questionnaires formed the second-round main sample. Items Q6–Q22 were five-point Likert scales, and descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Spearman correlations with Holm correction, Mann–Whitney U tests, and exploratory regression using HC3 robust standard errors were performed. In the second round, 67.5% of the respondents believed that mining created job or income opportunities, but only 37.5% felt that the general benefits exceeded the costs. Employment and income opportunities were positively correlated with the overall assessment (ρ = 0.600, p < 0.001); environmental impact, livelihood pressure and a combined inequality–participation index were all strongly negatively correlated. A model of employment opportunities and environmental impact reached an adjusted R² of 0.564, and employment was positively correlated with the overall assessment while environmental impact was negatively correlated. Employment prospects (Q14) were positively correlated with the overall assessment (Q19) in both waves and thus remained unchanged after cross-sample analysis. The differences between the rounds may be due to changes in the survey location and sample, not time. The people are not entirely for or against the mine; they weigh employment benefits, environmental damage, traditional livelihoods and distributional fairness. The quality of employment, ecological responsibility, community participation and economic restructuring of mining governance should be strengthened.