Jean-Raymond Boulle, the successful mining entrepreneur, founder and principle shareholder of Titanium Resources Group is be made a Commander of the Order of the Rokel, the highest order of merit to be awarded by the country of Sierra Leone. The award will be made to Boulle by His Excellency Alhadji Ahmad Tejan, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
The award recognizes the immensely valuable contribution that Boulle has made to the country and people of Sierra Leone over a 30 year time span. Boulle’s faith in its people to rebuild their lives and the country following the end of the civil war gave him the confidence to invest and keep investing in the country since 1999. At that time, general perception was that Sierra Leone represented too high a risk to justify investment. However Boulle ignored the general perception and invested many millions of dollars in purchasing 100% of the Sierra Rutile and Sierra Minerals mines. Throughout the horrific civil war Boulle, through his private companies, continued to support the local community by providing funding for agriculture, aquiculture, schools and medical care.
In August 2005, Boulle listed Titanium Resources on AIM and raised $100 million for the company to accelerate and expand production at the mine. In addition, the company secured a loan from the EU of €25 million. This was the largest financing in the history of Sierra Leone and placed the country firmly back on the map and open for business at the most crucial moment in its recent history, i.e. the onset of peace.
Since the successful restart of both the rutile and bauxite operations during the first quarter of 2006, Titanium Resources has become Sierra Leone’s biggest employer and its major exporter and generator of foreign revenue. Titanium Resources is of great importance to Sierra Leoneans, both symbolically and economically and the company’s continued success will ensure that Sierra Leone remains an attractive target for foreign investment. Boulle recognizes that the long term success of Titanium Resources relies intimately upon the maintenance of strong equitable and lasting relationships with the people of Sierra Leone. To help ensure that this happens, the Titanium Resources Group Foundation was established to liaise with and support the local community in the areas where the company operates.
Boulle is credited with the discovery and financing of a number of multi-billion dollar mines worldwide. He was the Founder, Chairman, CEO and a major shareholder of Diamond Fields Resources. Diamond Fields, a Toronto listed public company, achieved prominence in 1994 when it discovered one of the world’s largest and richest nickel, copper and cobalt orebodies at Voisey’s Bay in Labrador, Canada. In 1996, Diamond Fields sold the Voisey’s Bay deposit to Inco for C$4.3 billion.
The Jean-Raymond Boulle Corp is also a major shareholder (together with the Government of Mauritius) in the largest and most successful sugar estate and mills in Mauritius. It is the largest shareholder in Madagascar Resources, a company which has recently made a world class discovery of smelter grade ilmenite in southwestern Madagascar, called the Toliara sands project. The company is further involved in numerous mining programmes in Africa and worldwide, for a variety of commodities including nickel, copper, cobalt, zinc and gold.
