It is owned by Arctic Sea Mining, LLC and its registered home port is Nome, Alaska, USA. There is also potential for dredging to be used as means of providing construction sand to local contractors due to the depletion of sand from local beaches.The Myrtle Irene (USCG id: 643114) is a crewed flat-topped power barge adapted into a littorals at-sea excavator dredge mining vessel designed By Tony Messina out of Northern Wisconsin. Locally made dredges are common among artisanal miners, but a moratorium has recently been imposed on such practices by the National Minerals Agency as it goes against the Mines and Minerals act of 2009. Current state of dredgingĭredging is currently being done by a few small-scale mining companies, with Sierra Rutile running the only large-scale dredging operation.

Other ore minerals present in Sierra Leone with the propensity of forming placers are cassiterite (tin), chromite and coltan. The coastal plains that connect known mineralisation stretching from Liberia to Guinea are also a target for exploration, not only for rutile but also PGE. This means there is potential for discoveries other than in Sierra Rutile's concessions. The deposits are derived from weathering of gneisses and amphibolites of the Kasila group, which remains largely under explored. The predecessor of Iluka Resources/Sierra Rutile started using dredges to mine mineral sands in 1967 and the Sierra Rutile concessions still host one of the world's largest natural rutile deposits. Getting gold from diamond mining is quite common in diamond mining areas close to the greenstone belts, and these rivers have been dredged for both.

In some rivers, such as the Bafi and Teye, many of the diamond gravels and sands contain gold and both are mined with gold being the by-product.

2018 mining dredge