{{Iron ore producer London Mining has evacuated some non-essential staff from Sierra Leone and imposed travel restrictions due to an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, the company said on Tuesday.}}
Sierra Leone last month recorded five deaths from Ebola, its first confirmed fatalities from an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever that has is believed to have killed around 185 people in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia since March.
London Mining said its output had not been affected and no cases of Ebola had been found in communities around the mine.
But a spokesman for the company, which operates the Marampa mine some 120 km (75 miles) east of Freetown, said eight non-essential staff had left Sierra Leone at the weekend and those abroad on holiday had been advised not to return for now.
“The company has also restricted non-essential travel and all such travels are approved by the managing director of London Mining,” Osman Lahai said.
A spokesman for African Minerals, another British iron ore miner in the West African state, said it had also introduced travel restrictions on workers but operations were otherwise unaffected.
Both firms said they had put in place systems to screen the body temperatures of people working on their sites.
An Ebola outbreak began earlier this year in Guinea’s remote southeast, spreading later to Guinea’s capital, Conakry, and into neighbouring Liberia. Until last month, suspected cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone had tested negative.
reuters
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