MANO RIVER
The Mano River Mountains are a group of mountains of approximately 10 miles in overall length, located along the Mano River in Western Liberia, bordering the Republic of Sierra Leone. The Mano River Mountains are located in Porkpa District, Grand Cape Mount County, approximately 90 miles Northwest of Monrovia.
The iron ore deposits at the Mano River Mountains were discovered by the Liberia Mining Company (LMC) in 1957, following airborne magnetic surveys. At that time LMC was mining the Bomi Hills iron ore deposits.
In March 1958, the Government of Liberia and National Iron Ore Company Ltd. (NIOC) entered into an agreement for the exploration and exploitation of the iron ore, which consisted of an area of 24,560 acres (9939 hectare).
The ownership of the NIOC was:-
- 50% Liberian Government;
- 15% Liberia Mining Company (LMC); and
- 35% Liberia Enterprises, Ltd (owned by about 1600 Liberian shareholders from all walks of life).
On August 28, 1958, Mine Management Associates, Ltd., a Liberian company with technical backing from Republic Steel and LMC, was selected as operating agent for NIOC.
The geologic and magnetometer surveys conducted at the Mano River located seven (7) main topographic features containing iron deposits. These features were referred to as Hills A, H, I, J, V, E, and East Ridge. In January 1959, a diamond drill program was started, focusing on Hills A, H and I. Development of roads followed in 1961 and mining operations began at the end of the same year. Production of the mines continued steadily until in the 1970s when production dropped.
Current Status and Summary of key deposits
This region will need to be the subject of a reasonably comprehensive review before action can be taken here. However, it is possible that early in the review it will be possible to identify areas that can be brought into production early and these will be considered as the next step in production and at an early stage. When these are reviewed it will also be a key element in the review to consider shipping product out of Robertsport – and so work will be concentrated on this and also on working with others to achieve this aim.