HISTORY OF IRON ORE EXPLORATION AND MINING IN LIBERIA

From the early 1960's to 1990, Liberia was a major producer of iron ore.

By 1970, four iron ore mining sites were in operation:

National Iron Ore Company (NIOC) at Mano River
Liberia Mining Company (LMC) in Bomi Hills
the Bong Mining Company (BMC) in Fuamah District, Bong County;
LAMCO in Yekepa, Nimba County.

In 1977, LMC ceased operations at Bomi Hills as a result of organizational and economic problems. Reserves were left at the concession, particularly at the eastern extension. During the operations of both the LMC and NIOC, another iron deposit was discovered at the Bea Mountains in Gola Konneh District, Grand Cape Mount, just about mid-way between the Bomi Hills and Kongo.

The Liberia Mining Company (LMC) obtained permits and conducted exploration works on the Bea Mountains and, before the cessation of operations at Bomi Hills, it was decided that operations would have shifted to the Bea Mountains and the facilities at Bomi Hills be used for production of the Bea Mountains ore. This, however, did not materialize. Another study was undertaken in 1981 to evaluate the Bea Mountains’ surface ore for making sinter feed concentrate to mix with the Bomi River (NIOC) concentrate. This however depended on an influx of capital investment at the NIOC for the repairs and purchase of equipment.

In 1982, the Management of NIOC entered into an Agreement with the World Bank, African Development Bank and other lending institutions to provide the capital needed to revamp the NIOC. This was to be accompanied with serious managerial and operational changes at the NIOC. For reasons unknown, these did not occur and coupled with a natural disaster at the Concession in 1984, the NIOC closed in 1985. Reserves were also left. The Bea Mountains Project, which at the time depended on either the LMC or NIOC operations, did not take off. The reserves remain untouched.

Due to organizational and economic problems, the LMC closed down its operations in 1976, followed by NIOC in 1985, leaving assets that have been looted or deteriorated with time. Over the years during Liberia’s civil crisis, the Government of Liberia entered into Scrap Contracts with several entities to scrap the unusable assets and salvage the ones that could be reconditioned and used. There is a need to legally cancel these contracts to save whatever assets remain and enable development works in the area to proceed unhindered.