Monrovia – The Liberian Legislature continues its show of unanimity when the House of Representatives on Thursday, June 14 at its 37th day sitting concurred with the Senate and approved the Hummingbird Mineral Development Agreement (MDA).
Report by Gerald Koinyeneh, [email protected]
The Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) entered between the Government of Liberia and Hummingbird Resources for the mining of minerals in four counties: Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, River Gee and Sinoe Counties.
The Representatives’ decision follows a report submitted by its Joint Committee on Lands, Mines, Environment and Natural resources and Judiciary requesting plenary to concur with the Senate and approve the agreement.
Before the passage by the Senate and subsequent concurrence by the House of Representatives, the agreement lingered in the Senate’s corridor for more than a year.
In keeping with the laws of Liberia, the agreement will now be sent to the President of Liberia, Geoge M. Weah for approval to take full effect.
It can be recalled that in November 2016, the Senate Joint Committee on Lands, Mines, Energy, Natural Resources & Environment; Judiciary, Claims, Human Rights & Petitions and Investment & Concessions recommended to the plenary of the Liberian Senate to postpone ratification process of the proposed MDA pending explanations from the Executive.
According to the joint committee’s report, principally the lumping of four exploration licenses into a single MDA instead of four separate agreements.
The lack of a plan in the MDA for the development and mining of the over four million ounces of inferred gold resources discovered in Sinoe County are concerns that needed more explanations by the Executive.
However, it is not clear whether the Executive provided the answers that the lawmakers were seeking.
The Committee’s fear was that merging all the four agreements into one would lead to the loss of millions of revenue for government.
The report also added that there would be significant reduction in social development funds and other benefits to the affected communities in the counties of Sinoe, Grand Kru, River Gee and Maryland.
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