Sierra Leone takes it name from the Lion Mountain near Freetown and is a tropical country on the coast of West Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the south west, by Liberia in the south east and it is half surrounded by Guinea in the north and the north east.
The country's landscape offers a flat coastal belt, with the eastern half of the nation covered by hills and high mountains.
Sierra Leone has a population of more than 7 million people. Its largest city, main port and capital, is Freetown, situated in the west of the country.
Spoken languages are English, Krio and a range of other West African languages, amongst which Mende and Temne dominate.
Over the last two decades, Sierra Leone has operated as a stable democracy and generally achieved moderate annual economic growth, with agriculture and mining representing key contributors to country exports, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. Sierra Leone is an established mining jurisdiction with a long history of mining and existing regulatory framework.