BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – MNG Gold and Bea Mountain Mining Corporation (BMMC) have smuggled a huge consignment of ammonia nitrate—the chemical that caused the devastating explosion in Beirut, Lebanon last month—into Liberia for mining.
Report by James Harding Giahyue, with New Narratives
Nearly 4,000 tons of ammonia nitrate arrived in the country in June via the Port of Buchanan, according to Alex Francisco, the companies’ representative who oversees its storage and transportation.
Produced in Russia, the chemical is kept at an old, open-air Ebola treatment unit on more than an acre of land in Own your Own community on the New Buchanan Road, one of the port city’s quietest neighborhoods. The big bags of ammonia nitrate are guarded by eight armed police officers of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).
The chemical will be used at MNG Gold’s mine in Kokoya, Bong County and BMMC’s New Liberty Goldmine in Kinjor, Grand Cape Mount County, Francisco said in a mobile phone interview on Sunday. Some has already been transferred.
But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia, the government office that supervises the import, export and use of chemicals, said it was unaware of the ammonia nitrate.
“The agency has yet to be notified of the arrival of the consignment,” said Alloycious David, EPA’s media and communications specialist, in an email interview on Tuesday. “The agency has absolutely no idea about the shelf life of the chemicals in Liberia.”
On June 3, the EPA received a request from the company Kapeks Liberia to bring in the ammonia nitrate for BMMC, but it did not meet all the requirements for the shipment of the chemical, David said.
However, Fahnseth Mulbah, the director of concessions and economic forecast at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, confirmed the ministry was aware of the shipment of the chemical compound.
Importing a chemical without the consent of the EPA is a crime under the Environmental Protection and Management Law of Liberia. A violator could go to prison for up to 20 years and/or be fined up to US$50,000.
Dangerous and hazardous
Ammonia nitrate is predominantly used in agriculture as a fertilizer. Additionally, it can be used as an explosive in mining and quarrying. It is a constituent in many industrial explosives and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The chemical compound poses health, safety and environmental risks. It can cause harm when swallowed, lead to eye irritation, produce toxic gas when mixed with acid, intensify fire, and ignite an explosion when heated under confinement.
Ammonia nitrite explosions have been the cause of many deaths in the world. Some of the worst disasters include the 1921 Oppau explosion in which 500-600 people died, the 1947 Texas City disaster that killed 583 people, the 2015 Tianjin explosions in which 173 died, and the most recent August 4 Beirut explosion that killed 200.
“It is a dangerous and hazardous goods and must be stored and regulated with thoroughness. I do not think Liberia has the capacity to safely handle such with care and action plans to protect the public.”
– Dr. Saki Golafale, a Liberian chemist.
If the quantity is indeed nearly 4,000 tons, the amount of ammonia nitrate being stored in Buchanan is more than the ones in Beirut (2,750 tons), Texas (2,100 tons) and Tianjin (800 tons).
Some countries still use the chemical. The United States and countries in Eastern and Western Europe are the largest consumers of the commodity, consuming 53 percent in 2019, according to British information provider IHS Markit.
But others, including Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Pakistan, and Turkey—the home of Mehmet Nazif Günal, the Turkish billionaire who owns both MNG Gold and BMMC—have banned the use of ammonia nitrate both as a fertilizer and explosive.
Experts are calling on Liberia to do the same.
“With Liberia having poorly regulated institutions, it is advisable to either ban it or strengthen regulations,” Dr. Saki Golafale,a Liberian chemist, told FrontPage Africa via Facebook message. “It is a dangerous and hazardous goods and must be stored and regulated with thoroughness. I do not think Liberia has the capacity to safely handle such [measures] with care and action plans to protect the public.”
The EPA refutes Golafale’s assertions. “The agency has staff that have been trained on regulatory enforcement and management of hazardous chemicals,” David said. “The Agency does have the requisite capacity and expertise to enforce regulatory requirements over the handling of those hazardous chemicals accepted for importation under international conventions to which Liberia is a party.”
MNG Gold and BMMC say that they have everything under control and there would be no Liberian explosion.
“The ammonia nitrate is intact; everything is good,” Richmond Quartey, the health, safety and environment specialist overseeing it, told FrontPage Africa in an interview outside the storage facility on Sunday. Quartey added that electricity to the warehouse had been cut off to avoid a replication of the Beirut explosion.
“There are lots of safety measures that have been put into place,” he said. “We have ensured that the area is well cemented, and we avoid spillage and environmental degradation.”
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Excellence in Extractives Reporting Project. German Development Cooperation provided funding. The Funder had no say in the story’s content.