The Sierra Leone Selection Trust was formed in 1934 following an agreement between the government of

British Sierra Leone The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone (informally British Sierra Leone) was the British colonial administration in Sierra Leone from 1808 to 1961, part of the British Empire from the abolitionism era until the decolonisation era. The Crow ...

and the Consolidated African Selection Trust Ltd (CAST). CAST was formed in 1924 and was part of a much larger mining finance house Selection Trust Ltd which had been founded in 1913 by

Alfred Chester Beatty Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (7 February 1875 – 19 January 1968)Seanad 1985: "Chester Beatty died at the Princess Grace Clinic, Monte Carlo, on 19 January 1968, .. (some sources give this as 20 January). was an American-British mining magnate, p ...

(an American mining magnate). Although the Oppenheimers ( De Beers) invested in CAST and its subsidiaries from the 1920s and had boardroom representation, CAST was independent of the Oppenheimer empire. SLST corporation which had exclusive mineral mining rights in Sierra Leone beginning in 1935 was scheduled to last for 99 years. In 1955, the SLST abandoned mineral mining and settled on mining the

Yengema Yengema is a town in Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, lying approximately west of Koidu, Koidu Town (the largest city in Kono District), and about east of Freetown. The major industries in and around Yengema are diamond m ...

and Tongo Fields. However, with the creation of the Sierra Leonean parastatal National Diamond Mining Company in 1971, the diamond company was effectively nationalized, ending the SLST in Sierra Leone.

Sources

* Peter Greenhlagh - West African Diamonds - An economic history 1919-83.
The Heart of the Matter: Sierra Leone, Diamonds & Human Security

External links

Catalogue of the Selection Trust papers
at th

of the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

. * SLST SLST SLST 1934 establishments in Sierra Leone Non-renewable resource companies established in 1934 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1989 Financial services companies disestablished in 1989 Diamond mining companies of Sierra Leone {{mining-company-stub