MONROVIA – President Joseph Nyuma Boakai will open a two-day international mining and energy conference on Wednesday, as Liberia steps up efforts to attract foreign investment into the natural-resource sectors that underpin its economy.

The Liberia International Mining and Energy Conference and Expo (LIMEC 2026) runs October 28–29 at the Farmington Hotel in Margibi County, near Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia. Government officials, international investors, mining executives, energy developers and development partners are expected to attend.

Boakai is scheduled to deliver the keynote address, setting out his government’s plans for drawing investment and promoting responsible development of the country’s mineral resources.

Mining, chiefly iron ore and gold, is one of the West African nation’s main sources of export earnings, while chronic power shortages remain a major obstacle to industrial growth.

Held under the theme “Transforming Liberia’s Economy: Driving Development Through Sustainable Mining and Energy Investments,” the conference will feature panel discussions, presentations and exhibitions on investment opportunities in mineral exploration, production, renewable energy and related infrastructure.

Amara Kamara, president of the Liberia Chamber of Mines, said the gathering offers Liberia a chance to deepen ties with international investors, showcase its resources and build partnerships that could create jobs and drive growth.

He said the event’s value should go beyond investment promotion to opening doors for Liberian businesses, increasing local participation in the mining industry and ensuring that communities benefit from investments.

Kamara credited Mines and Energy Minister R. Matenokay Tingban and his ministry for coordinating with the Chamber of Mines and AME Trade Ltd., the international organizer, to stage the event.

Sponsors include Avesoro Resources, Mantrac Group, Huawei, CORICA Mining Services, Mansa Resources, Sarmin Metals, Westcrest Liberia, AGL Africa Global Logistics, the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), the Liberia Petroleum Regulatory Authority (LPRA) and WBHO.

MONROVIA — For most of the past half-century, Liberia’s mineral wealth has been a story told in the past tense. In the 1960s and 1970s, iron ore from the Nimba and Bong ranges made this small West African nation one of the world’s leading exporters of the steelmaking ingredient. Then came 14 years of civil war, and the mines, railways and ports fell silent.

By Rodney D. Sieh

This month, the government is staking its economic future on rewriting that story in the present tense.

On October 28 and 29, Liberia will host the first Liberia International Mining and Energy Conference & Expo, known as LIMEC 2026, a gathering of ministers, mining executives, energy developers, financiers and development partners. Organized jointly by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Liberia Chamber of Mines and the London-based events firm AME Trade Ltd, the conference will be held at the Farmington Hotel under the theme “Powering Prosperity: Sustainable Mining and Energy as Catalysts for Liberia’s Economic Transformation.” Organizers say ongoing and planned projects could draw more than $3 billion in new investment.

Launching the event at a news conference over the weekend, Mines and Energy Minister R. Matenokay Tingban framed it as a turning point.

“Our message to the international investment community is clear: Liberia is open for responsible business, committed to reform, and ready to build mutually beneficial partnerships,” he said.

But he attached a condition that will be closely watched by the companies already operating here. “Our natural resources must serve not only the interests of investors but also the broader aspirations of the Liberian people,” he said.

That tension — between courting capital and capturing a fairer share of its rewards — runs through every part of Liberia’s resource economy today.

From boom to ruin, and back

Liberia, founded in 1847 and Africa’s oldest republic, built much of its post-war-era economy on concessions: rubber, timber and, above all, iron ore. The Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company (LAMCO) in Nimba County and the German-backed Bong Mines were among the largest mining operations in Africa, linked by dedicated railways to the ports of Buchanan and Monrovia.

The civil wars of 1989 to 2003 destroyed that system. Rail lines were stripped for scrap, ports decayed, and an industry that once underpinned the national budget vanished.

The revival began in 2005, when Mittal Steel — now ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steelmaker — signed a Mineral Development Agreement to restart mining in Nimba and rebuild the 250-kilometer (155-mile) railway to Buchanan. First exports followed in 2011. But the Ebola epidemic of 2014-15 and a collapse in iron ore prices slowed ambitions, and for more than a decade the company shipped around 5 million metric tons a year.

Liberia also opened its first commercial gold mine, New Liberty in Grand Cape Mount County, which began production in 2016 after Turkey’s MNG Gold rescued the Ebola-stricken project.

What has changed in the past 18 months is scale.

The ArcelorMittal factor

ArcelorMittal Liberia remains the anchor of the sector, accounting for roughly 90 percent of the country’s iron ore exports. Its $1.8 billion expansion, built around a new concentrator at Tokadeh in Nimba County, lifts the company’s total investment in Liberia to about $3.5 billion — the largest foreign direct investment since the war.

In January, lawmakers ratified a third amendment to the company’s agreement, extending it to 2050 with an option to renew for a further 25 years. In return, ArcelorMittal agreed to pay $200 million upfront for the extended mining rights and reserved rail capacity, and annual license fees rose tenfold, from $50,000 to $500,000. The payment alone represented roughly 16 percent of the national budget, according to the credit insurer Coface.

The results are already visible. ArcelorMittal Liberia set production and shipment records in 2025, shipping about 10 million tons. The company initially targeted 20 million tons for 2026 but now guides to 18 million, citing heavy rains that slowed mining and port operations in the second quarter. It is also upgrading the railway to carry up to 30 million tons a year should it decide to expand further.

For the government, the deal secured long-term certainty from its largest investor. For ArcelorMittal, LIMEC is likely to be a stage on which it can present itself as a partner in Liberia’s ambitions — while watching carefully how far the reform agenda reaches into existing contracts.

Breaking the rail monopoly

The most consequential structural change in Liberia’s mining economy may not be a mine at all, but a railway.

For two decades, ArcelorMittal held exclusive use of the Yekepa-to-Buchanan line. Under President Joseph Boakai’s multi-user rail policy, that is ending. In December 2025, the Legislature ratified a 25-year Concession and Access Agreement with Ivanhoe Atlantic, a U.S. company founded by mining billionaire Robert Friedland, valued at $1.8 billion.

The deal allows Ivanhoe to haul ultra-high-grade iron ore from its Kon Kweni project in neighboring Guinea — which holds about 752 million tons of direct-shipping ore, including 209 million tons grading 67.8 percent iron — across Liberia to Buchanan. The company plans initial output of 2 million to 5 million tons a year, with exports through Liberia expected from 2027, and an eventual second phase of up to 30 million tons.

The amended ArcelorMittal agreement now requires new rail users to invest in expanding capacity to meet their own needs, an arrangement designed to turn the corridor into shared national infrastructure rather than a private asset.

The stakes are geopolitical as well as commercial. Ivanhoe markets Kon Kweni as a source of high-grade ore for Western supply chains, an alternative to the China-led Simandou mega-project elsewhere in Guinea, and the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia has publicly endorsed the deal. The corridor sits atop an estimated 12 billion tons of iron ore reserves straddling the border, much of it still under exploration licenses.

If the model works, Liberia could become a transit hub for Guinea’s landlocked southeastern deposits — earning fees, jobs and port traffic from minerals it does not even own.

Gold, grievances and the 3 percent question

If iron ore is Liberia’s success story, gold is its flashpoint.

Bea Mountain Mining Corporation, controlled by Turkish businessman Murathan Günal through Avesoro Resources, is the country’s largest industrial gold producer. It plans to double plant capacity and says the expansion will create more than 2,000 jobs. But the company has faced mounting scrutiny. A joint investigation by The Associated Press and The Gecko Project published in January documented cyanide spills into waterways, 2,200 hectares (5,436 acres) of cleared rainforest and community anger that turned deadly during 2024 protests. The company says it has reinforced its tailings dam and points to its record of rescuing the mine and safeguarding more than 1,200 Liberian jobs.

Politically, the sharpest issue is money. With gold prices near record highs — approaching $4,200 an ounce earlier this year — both senators from Grand Cape Mount County have called for the company’s agreement to be renegotiated, arguing that its flat 3 percent royalty no longer reflects the value leaving the country. The government holds a 5 percent stake in the operation. A visit by Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung, at which figures of about $1.6 billion in company revenue were discussed, stirred public outrage over the gap between that wealth and conditions in host communities.

Liberia remains a modest gold producer, at roughly 10 tons a year, and an estimated 70 percent of gold activity is informal, according to Senator Francis Dopoh, who has co-sponsored a bill to create a state-owned National Gold Company and a domestic refinery.

Rewriting the rules

These pressures have converged on a single question: Liberia’s mining law, written in 2000, is widely seen as out of date.

In February, Minister Tingban told Reuters at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town that a new mining code would be ready within three months. It would create a national mining company entitled to a free-carried equity stake of 10 to 15 percent in new projects, rising over time to 25 percent. Royalties would remain at 4.5 percent for iron ore and 3 percent for gold, with a new 8 percent rate for heavy mineral sands.

“We are moving from a royalty-only approach to equity participation to maximise returns,” Tingban said at the time. Whether the new equity terms would apply to existing projects, he added, would be determined by the Ministry of Justice.

Eight months on, the overhaul is still working its way through the Legislature. The House of Representatives opened public hearings in July, where the minister pressed for tougher penalties against illegal mining and mineral smuggling. The Senate has advanced an amendment reserving small-scale Class B licenses for Liberians. The Liberia Chamber of Mines, which represents the industry, has urged lawmakers to pursue a comprehensive rewrite rather than piecemeal fixes, saying investors expect fairness, consistency and transparency.

For existing operators, LIMEC arrives at a moment of regulatory uncertainty. The government’s message — welcome, but on better terms — will be tested by how it treats contracts already signed.

Power: the missing ingredient

The “energy” half of LIMEC’s title addresses what may be Liberia’s biggest structural handicap. Only about a third of Liberians — 32.7 percent — have access to electricity.

The government aims to raise that to 75 percent by 2030 under a national energy compact backed by the World Bank, while lifting renewables to 75 percent of the power mix.

There has been progress. The 88-megawatt Mount Coffee hydropower plant, rebuilt after the war, supplies nearly 70 percent of the country’s electricity. In June, President Boakai inaugurated the country’s first utility-scale solar plant, a 20-megawatt park at the Mount Coffee site, and signed a $57 million World Bank financing agreement to expand it and add battery storage. With Mount Coffee’s full capacity restored, the state utility has begun cutting costly imports from Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea through the regional CLSG power line.

For miners, reliable grid power would lower costs and make processing — and the value addition Tingban champions — more viable.

Without it, ambitions to refine gold or process ore at home will remain largely aspirational.

What it means for the economy

The macroeconomic picture is encouraging. The International Monetary Fund estimates Liberia’s economy grew 5.1 percent in 2025, up from 4 percent in 2024, and projects 5.5 percent growth this year, driven chiefly by iron ore, with support from manufacturing and construction. Inflation stood at 5.3 percent in May, and the country remains on a $210 million IMF Extended Credit Facility running through 2027.

Mining’s weight is growing fast. Extractives already accounted for more than 21 percent of domestic revenue in 2023, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and mining drove roughly two-thirds of economic growth in the first three quarters of 2025, Coface estimates.

Tingban has projected that mining’s share of national output could climb from 15 percent in 2024 to as much as 50 percent as new producers — including Cavalla Resources, Westcrest, Zodiac and a revived Bao Chico — come online, with national iron ore output potentially reaching 25 million to 30 million tons.

That concentration is also the risk. The IMF projects Liberia’s current account deficit will widen sharply this year, to 18 percent of GDP from 7 percent, as fuel and mining equipment imports surge. A single company still dominates exports, and the country’s fortunes are tightly bound to iron ore prices — and therefore to Chinese steel demand — at a time when vast new supply from Guinea’s Simandou is coming to market.

And Liberia’s history offers a sobering lesson: in the decades of the LAMCO era, iron ore generated enormous export earnings while much of the population remained poor, a disparity that fed the grievances behind the country’s collapse.

The real test

Tingban himself has set the bar. “LIMEC 2026 must be measured not only by the quality of its discussions,” he said, “but also by the investments it attracts, the partnerships it builds, the jobs it helps create, and the lasting benefits it delivers to the Liberian people.”

For international investors, Liberia offers rare advantages: a rebuilt rail corridor, deep-water access, a stable currency, an IMF-backed reform program and a government openly courting capital. For Liberians, the questions are older and harder — whether this boom will build schools and power lines in Nimba and Grand Cape Mount, whether communities will be heard, and whether the country can finally turn the wealth beneath its soil into prosperity above it.

Next week’s conference will not answer those questions. But it will show whether Liberia, a generation after the guns fell silent, is ready to be judged by them.

Monrovia – Coined from the ideology of reposition Liberia’s mining and energy sectors as key drivers of economic growth, investment, job creation and sustainable national development, the country is set to host what stands out to be a major gathering – the Liberia International Mining and Energy Conference & Expo (LIMEC 2026).  

By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway

Exploring Opportunities, Addressing Challenges and Building Partnerships

Speaking at the news conference over the weekend to launch the Conference, Mines and Energy Minister, R. Matenokay Tingban, explained that forum is a strategic platform that will bring together government, investors, mining companies, energy developers, development partners, policymakers, and technical experts to explore opportunities, address challenges, and build partnerships that will advance Liberia’s economic transformation.

As a nation richly endowed with mineral resources and significant energy potential, Minister Tingban said it’s time that Liberia moves beyond the extraction of natural resources toward a development model that delivers greater value to our people.

Doing so, he pointed out, would require the promotion of responsible mining, strengthening regulatory institutions, expanding access to reliable and affordable electricity, encouraging local participation, and ensuring that the country’s natural resources contribute meaningfully to national revenue and improved livelihoods.

Commitment Made

Through the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Mines and Energy Minister renewed government’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for responsible investment, transparent resource governance and sustainable development across the mining and energy sectors.

‘‘We recognize that attracting investment requires more than the availability of natural resources. It requires policy consistency, institutional capacity, regulatory clarity, infrastructure development, environmental responsibility, and strong collaboration between the public and private sectors. These are among the critical issues that LIMEC 2026 will help bring to the forefront.’’

“This conference will also provide an opportunity to showcase Liberia’s mineral wealth, emerging investment prospects, energy development priorities, and ongoing reforms. It will allow us to engage international investors and strategic partners on how best to translate our national resource potential into tangible economic benefits for our citizens,” stated Minister Tingban.

Liberia Is Opened for Business

Minister Tingban sounded a clarion call to the international world that Liberia is open for business, but for responsible investors that will also seek the interest of the country.

The Minister wants investments that create decent jobs, strengthen local businesses, develop the skills of Liberian professionals, promote technology transfer and support the growth of Liberia’s domestic industries.

“Our message to the international investment community is clear: Liberia is open for responsible business, committed to reform, and ready to build mutually beneficial partnerships,” he declared.

“At the same time, we emphasize that investment must be accompanied by accountability, respect for our laws and regulations, environmental protection, and meaningful benefits for the communities in which mining and energy projects operate. Our natural resources must serve not only the interests of investors but also the broader aspirations of the Liberian people.”

He extolled the country’s development partners, private-sector stakeholders, sponsors and all institutions working to make LIMEC 2026 a success, stressing it’s a demonstration of confidence in Liberia’s potential and in the opportunities that lie ahead.

Renewed Vow

The Mines and Energy Minister reaffirmed that the Ministry of Mines and Energy, under his stewardship, will continue to work with relevant government institutions, the private sector, development partners, and local communities to ensure that Liberia’s mineral and energy resources are managed responsibly and contribute to inclusive and sustainable national development.

“LIMEC 2026 must be measured not only by the quality of its discussions, but also by the investments it attracts, the partnerships it builds, the jobs it helps create, and the lasting benefits it delivers to the Liberian people,” he added.

WASHINGTON, DC — A Liberian senator has told American democracy advocates that his country faces two threats at once: multinational mining companies working through legal deals, and drug cartels working through bribes. He said either one could hollow out Liberia’s democracy from within if it is left unchecked.

By Rodney D. Sieh

Senator Amara M. Konneh is an independent lawmaker from Gbarpolu County in northwestern Liberia and chairs the Senate’s Public Accounts and Audit Committee. He spoke at a private roundtable hosted this month by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S.-funded

organization that supports democratic institutions abroad. His remarks are drawn from talking points prepared for the session and reviewed by FrontPageAfrica.

“Liberia is not yet a captured state,” Konneh said, “but we are at the most dangerous point since the war and Ebola.”

The West African nation of about 5.5 million people was founded in 1847 with the backing of freed American slaves. It is still recovering from a civil war that ended in 2003 and from the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic that killed nearly 5,000 Liberians.

‘Legal, so it’s harder’

Konneh said mining makes up 12 percent of Liberia’s gross domestic product and 65 percent of its export earnings. Yet less than 3 percent of that wealth reaches communities directly.

The problem, he argued, starts with the way concessions are negotiated. Liberian law gives the executive branch wide discretion over Mineral Development Agreements. These 25-year contracts are ratified by the legislature and are very hard to amend later. “Companies negotiate with three or four people in Monrovia, not with the country,” he said.

He pointed out that several major operators are renegotiating rail, port and royalty terms at the same time: steelmaker ArcelorMittal, gold miner Bea Mountain, Hummingbird and Bao Chico. On paper Liberia keeps 48 percent of mining value, he said, but stabilization clauses, tax holidays and transfer pricing push the real share far lower.

He also described a system of off-budget signature bonuses and “social contributions,” often paid around elections. He said legislators from mining districts are offered jobs, scholarships and “facilitation fees” of $5,000 to $20,000 to vote for ratification. “This is legalized state capture,” he said. He did not tie any particular company to these payments.

He also warned that private security forces at some concessions are larger and better equipped than the county police. And he said community activists who protested environmental damage have been charged with “economic sabotage.” His examples included Kinjor in Grand Cape Mount County, the community most affected by Bea Mountain’s gold concession, as well as communities in Grand Bassa and Nimba.

‘Illegal, so it’s faster’

The drug trade follows “the same playbook, different commodity,” Konneh said. Traffickers don’t need to buy the whole state, only key people: “an airport baggage handler, an evidence clerk, a police crime services officer, and a port scanner operator.”

He cited two seizures this year. In June, 237 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $19.2 million were seized at Roberts International Airport, the country’s main airport. In July, 3.9 metric tons worth about $317 million were seized in Duazon, outside the capital, Monrovia. He said the July haul had links to Spain, Colombia, Serbia, Croatia and Ukraine, and that its value was four times Liberia’s national health budget.

He also pointed to cases inside the country’s own anti-drug agency. On September 29, a court in Margibi County convicted Joe Logan and Lovette Flowers, two agents of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), of colluding with traffickers, and sentenced each to the maximum 20 years. They had resold cocaine seized at the airport. Konneh said a police Commissioner for Crime Services was also dismissed after admitting to taking a $10,000 bribe in the same network.

Konneh also raised the most politically sensitive case. Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was arrested at the airport and charged on August 19 with conspiracy, facilitation and money laundering. She denies the charges. Konneh criticized the government for destroying the 3.9 tons of cocaine before trial. He predicted the case could collapse over constitutional warrant defects or chain-of-custody problems. If it does, he said, “the public will conclude it’s politics, not justice.”

He placed Liberia within a wider regional crisis. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 126.4 metric tons of cocaine were seized in or through West Africa between 2019 and 2024, including 30.8 tons in the Gulf of Guinea corridor along Liberia’s coast. The region has become “a destination market, not just a transit zone,” he said. He also described kush, a cheap synthetic drug blend that first spread in Sierra Leone and now reaches Liberia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia and Senegal, mostly among unemployed young people.

Why Washington should care

Konneh framed the issue as a test of American credibility. He said Liberia voted with the United States 89 percent of the time at the United Nations last year and hosts the largest U.S. diplomatic presence in West Africa.

“If Liberians conclude that America only cares when there’s a big drug bust but stays silent when a $2 billion mining deal is signed behind closed doors, we lose credibility for democracy,” he said. “China and Russia don’t ask about beneficial ownership. Cartels don’t ask about human rights.”

He noted that Sweden closed its embassy in Monrovia last month. He also urged the European Union to keep its delegation in Liberia fully staffed rather than move its functions to Abidjan in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.

The asks

At home, Konneh said, the Senate is working on several measures. On mining, it wants to require that all mining agreements, amendments, beneficial owners and payments be published before ratification. It also proposes independent valuation of iron ore transfer pricing, modeled on Botswana’s approach to diamonds, and sending 20 percent of royalties directly to district development funds.

On drugs, the proposals would require that seized evidence be kept until final judgment. Officers at the airport, the Freeport of Monrovia and the security agencies would face polygraphs, lifestyle audits and drug tests. An unexplained-wealth law would allow assets to be seized without a criminal conviction.

From Washington, he asked for help that is “practical, not preachy”:

• Funding to monitor Liberia’s drug court and commercial court

• Forensic audits of the ArcelorMittal rail and port concession and of Bea Mountain’s royalties

• Resumed mentoring of vetted Liberian drug units by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, with oversight

• Equipment for scanners and sniffer dogs, including maintenance

• Help from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in tracing money in three or four specific cases

• A $10 million pilot program to track large cash donations ahead of the 2029 elections

He also urged that Global Magnitsky sanctions, the U.S. tool for penalizing corrupt officials and human rights abusers, be used “surgically.” Their targets should include enablers in mining licensing who move money into U.S. real estate, he said, and Washington should state publicly why it acts.

“Help us establish transparent regulations before finalizing agreements,” Konneh said, “and support impartial enforcement of laws after confiscation — whether the suspect is an airport baggage handler, a police crimes services director, a former Vice President, or a multinational corporation.”

MONROVIA – Former Minister of Mines and Energy, Wilmot Paye, has called on the Liberian government to adopt a policy of resource sovereignty, arguing that the country cannot substantially benefit from its natural wealth unless it breaks the hold of cartels and outside influence over the minerals sector.

By Obediah Johnson

Mr. Paye spoke on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, as a guest on Voice of Liberia 104.1 FM in Monrovia.

Cartels and “extended influence”

Mr. Paye said Liberia is more richly endowed with natural resources than other countries in the region, but that its minerals sector continues to be threatened by cartels and extended influence. He recalled that during the previous administration, the mining cartel was very strong and powerful in the country.

He said many African countries are already promoting resource sovereignty and are taking charge of their own destinies instead of depending on others for survival. Liberia, he said, should do the same.

According to Mr. Paye, a sound policy approach, effective implementation and the removal of hurdles and outside influence would make the energy and minerals sectors more vibrant for the benefit of citizens.

“While I was in government I believe in it, while I’m out I believe in it and I will continue to believe in it,” he said of resource sovereignty, adding that Liberia needs to change its approach and mindset.

“Not relief agencies”

The former minister cautioned that mining companies operating in Liberia are not relief agencies. If steps are not taken to promote resource sovereignty, he warned, such companies could deplete the country’s resources without bringing significant benefits to citizens.

Against reliance on loans

Mr. Paye argued that Liberia should stop treating loans and borrowing as the answer to its difficulties, given the abundance of its natural resources. He said that by promoting resource sovereignty, the country would not need loans from the World Bank or other international financial bodies to fund its development programs.

He identified minerals as a very significant part of the country’s natural wealth, but said greed among some past and current public officials, whom he did not name, is a contributing factor depriving the nation of the benefits.

Allegations of “double standards”

Mr. Paye noted that Liberia’s new mineral law prohibits public officials, employees and agents of the Ministry of Mines and Energy from holding mining licenses. However, he said some of these officials continue to play double standards to influence the sector.

He observed that some public officials interfere in the sector by being awarded contracts by companies operating in it. He did not provide specific names or examples.

China-Liberia mineral survey

Mr. Paye also disclosed that China and Liberia reached an agreement and carried out a mineral resource survey across the country as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral relations after years of strained ties.

He said the survey was conducted jointly by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, during his tenure, and the China Geological Survey, with support from the Wuhan Center in China. It provided additional insights into Liberia’s mineral potential and identified more than two dozen minerals found in the country, he said.

“Liberia is a resource-rich country; there is no country in our region that is as blessed as Liberia,” Mr. Paye said, adding that the country’s potential spans forest, mineral, renewable and non-renewable resources.

Court cases during his tenure

Mr. Paye recalled that his administration at the ministry rejected unfavorable requests from influential people inside and outside government that were not in the interest of the country and its citizens. He said his firm stance on carrying out the ministry’s statutory responsibilities led to the ministry being taken to court on numerous occasions.

The claims in this article are those of Mr. Paye. The officials and companies he referred to were not named, and no response from the government was available at the time of publication.

Monrovia – For a decade and a half, the mountain has mostly kept its secrets. Putu, tucked into the forested hills of Grand Gedeh County, holds an estimated 2.37 billion tonnes of iron ore — enough, by some reckonings, to rank among West Africa’s largest untapped deposits. And for just as long, it has sat there: surveyed, licensed, argued over, and never mined.

By Rodney D. Sieh, rodney.sieh@frontpageafricaonline.com

That may be changing. In a letter dated September 11 and addressed to Mines and Energy Minister R. Matenokay Tingban, Severstal — the Russian steel giant that has held the Putu concession since 2010 — told the government something it had spent much of this year arguing against: that Africa Metallic Resources Inc. has come through with a binding offer, and that it beats the rival bid from Planet One Natural Resources Holdings on price and terms alike.

It is a small paragraph with a long backstory.

A mountain with a complicated past

Putu’s modern history begins in 2010, when the Liberian government signed a 25-year mineral development agreement handing Severstal control of the deposit. The timing was almost immediately unlucky. Feasibility studies dragged on. Then came 2014, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the first wave of Western sanctions that would follow Moscow for the next decade. By the time the war in Ukraine escalated those sanctions further, Severstal was, in practical terms, a foreign operator that couldn’t easily raise financing, sell into Western markets, or move equipment through the usual channels. Putu never got past drilling and paperwork. Twenty thousand potential jobs sat, on paper, in a country that badly needed them.

So Severstal went looking for an exit. And that’s where the story most Liberians have been following since spring actually starts.

A contract, a reversal, and a lot of noise

In December 2025, following a competitive review by Liberia’s Inter-Ministerial Concessions Committee, AMR — a Liberian-led consortium built around Cherif Abdallah’s Conex Group, with the Africa Finance Corporation as a financing partner — was named preferred developer. It scored 88.6 out of 100 in the government’s own evaluation, well ahead of a company called JSW and far ahead of Planet One, which came in last at 55.6.

Then, in the space of a few months, the deal seemed to unravel. Severstal began telling the Ministry of Mines that AMR was moving too slowly — that it hadn’t produced proof of funds, hadn’t cleared U.S. sanctions review, and was, in the company’s words, the “least advanced” of the potential buyers. By March and April, Severstal was actively lobbying for Planet One instead, and on April 22, an acting minister granted consent for exactly that transfer.

“What about us, the affected communities? Are we going to be silenced like before?” — Putu Contact Group chairman Joseph Geebro

It didn’t sit well. The Putu Contact Group, representing communities that live in the shadow of the deposit and have watched outside companies come and go for fifteen years without a shovel touching ground, called foul — loudly. Their argument was simple: the government’s own scoring had ranked Planet One last, and yet Planet One was suddenly winning.

President Joseph Boakai stepped in and hit pause. Citing a binding December memorandum with AMR, he ordered the Planet One transfer halted and directed that the existing agreement be given every chance to work before any alternative was considered.

What actually changed Severstal’s mind

Here’s the part of the story that tends to get lost in the back-and-forth: Severstal’s objections to AMR were never really about who AMR was. They were about two specific, fixable problems — sanctions clearance and proof of funds. Over the summer, AMR appears to have solved both. By May, the company had secured clearance from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, removing the sanctions uncertainty that had been Severstal’s loudest complaint. Financing commitments through the Africa Finance Corporation, a strategic partner of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, filled in the rest.

“The company Severstal spent the spring calling the ‘least advanced’ bidder is now the one it’s endorsing.”

That is presumably why Severstal is now writing letters that read almost like an endorsement — telling the ministry that AMR’s terms are better than Planet One’s, and that both bidders offer roughly the same timeline to production. Whatever the company’s earlier reservations, the practical obstacles behind them have largely disappeared.

The Liberian company behind the letters

AMR’s public face has been John B.S. Davies III, who has described Putu less as a mining deal than a test case for a different kind of resource development in Liberia — one where ownership, procurement, and processing stay closer to home rather than following the familiar path of raw ore shipped out and profit following it. Above Davies sits Cherif Abdallah, the Conex Group chairman whose business footprint in Liberia already runs through energy, logistics, and real estate — he’s the same figure who bought out Total’s Liberia and Sierra Leone operations a few years back. It’s Conex’s balance sheet and regional infrastructure, alongside AFC’s financing muscle, that gives AMR’s bid its weight.

What’s actually on the table for Liberia

If the deal closes on the terms in Severstal’s letter, the pitch is substantial: more than 20,000 jobs, government equity carried free of cost, a share offering open to ordinary Liberian investors, and commitments to build out roads, rail, power, and port infrastructure alongside the mine itself — rather than simply exporting raw ore and leaving the rest to someone else.

It’s worth saying plainly, though, that a binding offer is not a closed deal. The Share Sale and Purchase Agreement still has to be finalized, and the same questions about execution capacity that dogged AMR in the spring haven’t entirely vanished just because the sanctions issue has been resolved. Fifteen years of false starts at Putu have taught the southeast to be patient about promises made on paper.

A skeptic’s caution

Not everyone is convinced this reversal changes the fundamentals. Back when Severstal was still lobbying for Planet One, former Minister of Mines and Energy Wilmot Paye warned publicly against treating any change of ownership at Putu as progress in itself.

“I do not believe that a mere change of control is adequate to achieve any more desirable outcome than maintaining the status quo,” Paye said at the time, questioning what had specifically qualified Planet One over other bidders after Severstal had reportedly “concluded” transfer terms with them — the same abrupt reversal now playing out again, in the opposite direction, in AMR’s favor.

Paye’s broader argument was less about which company wins than about the structure underneath the fight. “Mining is not like harvesting a cassava farm,” he said, cautioning that Liberia won’t fully understand what it has agreed to until a real deal is signed — and warning that a successor could eventually seek to extend the existing Mineral Development Agreement through amendment, leaving the country “tied up” again. “The consequence?” he asked. “The vicious circle continues.”

Whether AMR’s newly cleared sanctions status and financing commitments answer that concern, or simply repeat the pattern Paye described with better paperwork, is likely to be argued over for as long as the deal itself takes to close.

The president’s bet

Seen from a few months’ distance, Boakai’s April intervention looks less like picking a side in a corporate dispute and more like buying AMR the runway it needed to clear the objections that were actually holding things up. Whether that reads as prudent mediation or as a government that nearly reversed a fair, competitive process before catching itself is likely to depend on who’s telling the story — and it’s a question this paper’s readers deserve to see asked plainly, not just answered on the government’s terms.

Monrovia – Africa Metallic Resources Inc. (AMR), a Liberian led consortium, won a competitive evaluation process and was recently selected by the Government of Liberia as the preferred developer for the acquisition and development of the Putu Iron Ore Mining (PIOM) asset, welcomes and fully endorses the Government’s decision to establish a dedicated committee to expedite the development of the project and the completion of the transaction process.

This decisive intervention reflects a clear recognition of the strategic importance of the Putu  asset and the need to translate policy intent into timely execution. AMR further commends the Government of Liberia for its forward-looking policy direction aimed at promoting indigenous participation, local ownership, and sustainable value creation within the extractive sector.

The selection of AMR followed a rigorous and transparent evaluation process, through which the Company demonstrated strong technical capability, credible financial backing, and alignment with national development priorities.

This outcome represents a deliberate shift toward ensuring that Liberia’s natural resources deliver tangible and lasting benefits to its citizens. At the core of AMR’s development approach is a commitment to meaningful local ownership and participation in large-scale mining operations. As a Liberian-led enterprise backed by the Conex Group, AMR is positioned to advance a model that prioritizes domestic value retention, strengthens local content participation, and builds national capacity across the mining value chain.

This approach is underpinned by government-free carried equity participation, ensuring direct sovereign benefit, and broad-based ownership through the proposed subscription of shares by ordinary Liberians, enabling inclusive economic participation. In parallel, AMR is committed to value addition and beneficiation, transitioning from raw exports toward industrialization and downstream processing.

This integrated model also includes the incorporation of Liberian businesses into procurement processes, the development of skilled local labor, and the creation of sustainable, long-term employment opportunities.

Notably, these elements- government-free carry, broad-based Liberian ownership, and a clear value addition strategy- were significantly absent from competing proposals, further reinforcing AMR’s unique alignment with national development priorities and long-term economic transformation objectives. 

AMR’s strategy emphasizes value addition and beneficiation, transitioning from raw exports to industrialization and downstream processing. This approach will strengthen economic linkages, increase fiscal revenues, and support structural transformation within the Liberian economy. In parallel, AMR is committed to inclusive community engagement, ensuring direct benefits through employment, infrastructure, and social development. The Putu Project, therefore, represents a transformative opportunity to drive broad-based growth, generate significant export revenues, create over 20,000 jobs, and deliver critical infrastructure, including roads, railways, power systems, ports, and essential social services.

AMR is supported by a consortium of globally recognized partners, including the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a strategic partner of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), as a core financing partner. AFC brings extensive experience in structuring and financing large-scale mining and infrastructure projects across Africa, reinforcing the project’s bankability and execution credibility.

This is complemented by leading international technical partners, ensuring delivery to global standards of governance, sustainability, and operational excellence. The Company also recognizes and appreciates the leadership of the Government of Liberia, particularly its efforts to expedite the process through coordinated institutional mechanisms.

This approach reinforces investor confidence, enhances policy coherence, and signals a strong commitment to ensuring that the Putu Project moves forward without unnecessary delay. Africa Metallic Resources Inc. (AMR) is a Liberian-owned mining and infrastructure development company and an affiliate company of the Conex Group.

The Company was established to originate, acquire, and develop large-scale mineral and infrastructure assets across Liberia and West Africa. Backed by strong financial and technical partnerships, AMR is positioned to deliver world-class mining projects that drive economic transformation, infrastructure development, and sustainable growth. The Conex Group, headquartered in Liberia, operates across West Africa with a strong track record in energy, logistics, and infrastructure development.