As Liberia struggles to showcase attractive investment climate for investors, one of the giant concessionaires the Unity Party-led government seems to be longing for is in the mining sector.
Liberia’s foremost known mining terrain remains Yekepa in Nimba County, where Liberia –American Mining Company (LAMCO) successfully operated for decades and made impacts on the lives of Liberians and foreign nationals in the past.
Postwar mining in Yekepa is being done by Indian giant steel company ArcelorMittal, which renovated the Yekepa-Buchanan Rail Road for shipment of iron ore through the port of Buchanan.
ArcelorMittal sealed its twenty five years’ concession agreement during Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf-led government when UP was the Governing Party. Though the company’s concession agreement maintains twenty five years’ span, its absolute right/ control over the rail was amended during the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government under former football icon George Manneh Weah.
New concession deal in the making
Though ArcelorMittal still sits pretty in Yekepa paying royalties to the Liberian Government for its mining operations in the country; news of another concession deal to come from neighboring Guinea surfaced during the regime of Weah.
American mining privately-held company- High Power Exploration Inc. (HPX) is the company focused on the development of the ultra high-grade Nimba iron ore mining in neighboring Guinean. Negotiations with the Liberian Government started during the CDC-led regime to use the rail in Liberia for shipment of ores through the Buchanan Port but no agreement was sealed until the regime was defeated during the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
As the HPX concession negotiations surfaced, ArcelorMittal reportedly insisted to be the custodian of the rail so that royalties from HPX would directly be received by the Indian giant steel company.
However, the Liberian Government does not bow to the idea that a foreign company should posses ownership of the rail on Liberian soil. The Weah administration resisted the quest of ArcelorMittal on this deal, and the Biakai administration seems to be doing the same. As one legal mind put it, “We cannot allow a foreign company to dictate to us on the usage of the rail by insisting to own it and take royalties from another foreign company.”
Delay in sealing HPX’s deal and the venting anger
Of recent, there appears to an outburst of disappointment on the part of HPx’s negotiators with the Boakai-led regime, against which backdrop a communication was reportedly sent to President Boakai on what is said to be a delay in formally sealing the deal at hand on the mining operations in question. There are reports that around Five Billion United States Dollars is targeted for rail connectivity from the Guinea corridor via Buchanan through Southeast Liberia to Ivory Coast.
However, the reported communication sent to President Boakai on the HPX’s deal did not go down well with the Economic Advisor to President Boakai, Molley Kamara, who described the communication as an act of intimidation and disrespect to the presidency.
Sources have also indicated that negotiators of HPX are mounting pressure on the Liberian Government while the U.S. Government is said to have cautioned the administration of President Boakai against the HPX’s deal due to inimical reasons.
In-house fight
President Boakai’s surrounding seems to be mixed with individual interests. The dollar spirit on either side of the concessionaires- ArcelorMittal or HPX, analysts have surmised, is likely to expose the intents of those in the close premises of the President. “Some people are taking side with ArcelorMittal while others are pushing the interest of HPX,” one analyst has claimed.
In the wake of these unfolding developments, critics of the government and even some Liberians who claimed to have supported the election of the UP-led administration are urging President Boakai to be vigilant in decision making to avoid appointees portraying themselves as elected officials in running the affairs of the country.
Mt. Nimba, ArcelorMittal, HPX