The Minister of Mines and Energy, Wilmot Paye, has told the public that measures that ensure Liberia benefits from its mineral resources are reviewed and, where applicable, they should and must meet required standards as provided for globally.
The Mines and Energy Minister has run to practicality, reaching out to the operational facilities of mining concessionaires in Liberia to ascertain for himself, what is unfolding in the mineral and mining sector.
While Liberians are worrying that the first industrial mining company in post-war Liberia; MNG Gold Liberia, has decided on decommissioning its operations in Kokoya, Bong County, central Liberia, Wilmot Paye, the sector head, called on the company to not decommission or end its operations in Kokoya, but consider resuming after a suspension spanning several months now.
Officials of MNG Gold told Minister Paye’s delegation to their concession area that they shut down active mining in November 2022, due to what they attributed to ‘economic reasons’.
Embedded in their economic reasons was the low level of gold availability in their concession area of Kokoya, which has not met their recovery expectations, for which reason, they divulged, they are now prospecting in other counties, including Rivercess.
In an effort to prevail on actual recovery of minerals they anticipated through their investment interest in Liberia, MNG Gold told Minister Paye, they sought underground mining approval with the former government of Liberia, and they built the underground mining facilities, but still faced difficulties in desired gold recovery.
Touring their facilities, the Mines and Energy Minister and his team of Deputy and Assistant Ministers, discovered that MNG Gold has been inactive for a protracted period of time, thus causing job losses at the concession area, which was promoting livelihood activities amongst local community residents, as well as a win-win situation for the company (MNG Gold) as well.
The MNG Gold Class ‘A’ mining company is owned and operated by Turks, who are associated with Bea Mountain Gold mining company in Grand Cape Mount, Western Liberia. As manifests of their investment interest in Liberia, Minister Wilmot Paye and his delegation inspected the construction of a modern school campus facility off David Dean’s Town in Kokoya, completed construction of a clinic, a market building, etc.
What raised eyebrows from the ministerial delegation to MNG Gold over the weekend, was that Minister Paye discovered that despite all MNG Gold has done to completely construct those infrastructure facilities, the townspeople do not seem to be accessing the facilities, with the exception of the clinic, which only runs from Monday to Friday.
Paye told MNG Gold that action was needed here for the clinic to see patients on the weekend days of Saturday and Sunday as well.
The MNG Gold Company told Minister Paye that they are responsible for the salaries of the medical staff at the constructed clinic, which facilities seem serene, fitted with staff residential housing units they [MNG Gold] built right next to the clinic.
The Mines and Energy Minister told MNG Gold that he is going back to Kokoya to interact with the locals about their relationship with the company in terms of cordial co-existence.
He applauded them for having a few women in their managerial structure, including the Head of the company’s clinic, the Human Resource Director, and Chief Dietician, but told them to go beyond those ‘set-aside’ positions for females.
He told MNG Gold’s Management that Liberia needs them, and they should stay here and explore avenues of making sure their mining interest in Liberia works for the greater good of all.
One major concern of the MNG Gold Management was the trespassing into its concession area by surrounding townspeople specifically referred to as ‘Gold Boys’, who, the company told Minister Paye, are encroaching on their concession territorial boundaries by entering into their fence to do small-scale mining.
The Management of MNG Gold told Minister Paye that they have been looking to government’s intervention in this, but there seems to be no response from anywhere whatsoever.
According to MNG Gold, they are avoiding commotion from the local communities, so they are avoiding state security clashing with those illicit miners adjacent to their concession area in Kokoya.
MNG Gold told Minister Paye, Deputy Minister for Planning, Fahnseth Mulbah, Deputy Minister for Operations, William Hines, and Assistant Minister for Mineral Exploration and Environmental Research, Oliver Gbegbe, that they look up to the Ministry to assist them in any way possible, technically, to maintain their mining operations in Liberia.
Minister Paye told them to remain open to interacting with government always, when necessary.
Before reaching out to MNG in Kokoya, the Minister of Mines and Energy had earlier reached out to the operational facilities of China Union Iron Ore Mining Company in Bong Mines.
Minister Paye inspected the new benefactor facilities of China Union, which has a higher production potential when completed, and actual operations go into full implementation.
The Mines and Energy Boss was drilled through all of the new machine installations the China Union company has made, explanations were provided by Chinese interpreters, but Minister Wilmot Paye was quick to point out that Liberia needs English inscriptions to wording (s) on their operational equipment, as well as administrative info on their office bulletins, all of which, Minister Paye discovered, were only in the Chinese language.
He saw and inspected that China Union has achieved at least 60 percent of the construction of its new ‘Benefactor Production Plant’ in Bong Mines, which should be a supposed potential revenue generating opportunity for the Government of Liberia when every detail is worked out.
At China Union, Minister Wilmot Paye requested a review of what makes the company not have a Liberian Government Representative anymore, and called for a review in that regard.
He also called on China Union to remain open in engaging with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Government at large, when the need arises, but told them he needs more Liberian presence in their top management structure.
Minister Paye had had interactions with the Managements of ArcerlorMittal and Western Cluster Class ‘A’ mining companies operating through an Act of Legislature, otherwise known as Mineral Development Agreement (MDA).
He and his team are expected to make further reach outs to other companies this week, to ascertain operational realities, among others.
