WHY LIBERIA?
Liberia has been mining iron ore for many generations, but it has been intermittent – being
particularly affected by the needs and dictates of others in the Second World War and by
subsequent civil unrest and the resulting disruption.
It has also been characterised by operations that have relied on external interests and financial resources. While the need for foreign investment remains as strong as ever, there are very good reasons why Liberia should now establish its own mid-tier iron ore mining and beneficiation company. In this way the interests of Liberia are likely to receive a higher priority than they might have in the past, and, in time, the potential for further adding of value in Liberia to the iron ore produced in Liberia may prove viable. However, there can be no doubt that if a durable Liberian Iron Ore industry is to be established once again, export of iron ore to the world’s major steel producers is the place to start.
The potential for Liberia’s Western Region as an iron ore producer has been the subject of many studies – and not all have been favourable. The reasons for this are probably three fold:-
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iron ore prices have not been as favourable as they are now;
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the major ore body at Bea is taconite and this is of low grade and expensive to process to a marketable product;
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the interests of individual companies operating in the region on different ore bodies have not enabled the optimisation of the region’s known ore bodies in an integrated and logical manner;
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the methods of exploration, mining and beneficiation were not as good as those available now having improved significantly in recent years.
The wisdom of the government in recognising the Western Iron Ore Cluster as an integrated unit is applauded - what is now needed is a systematic and logical development of this cluster (and the infrastructure needed to support it) in a manner that is appropriate to resources in place; the markets available now and in the future; and the needs and developing capabilities of Liberia.
It would seem logical that to develop the iron ore in this region it will be necessary to plan also for the development of other resource opportunities in the region. This is less likely to be achieved with one single purpose major development – especially as such a development would require a much larger and well proven ore body and would be advanced only by a major with international objectives.
