IPNEWS: ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) continues to make good progress with the study to produce and export 30 million tons per annum (mtpa) of concentrate from its Liberian operations. As part of this study, drilling and test work commenced in 2021. To date 11,150 metres of the 22,700 metres planned have been completed.
AML is also ensuring that the mine, rail, port, material handling and other facilities are being designed and constructed in a manner that enables the next expansion phase for 30 mtpa capacity.
Stefan Buys, CEO ArcelorMittal Mining said: “ArcelorMittal would like to reiterate its commitment to maintaining and strengthening its strategic partnership with the people of Liberia by creating much needed jobs, supporting community development and contributing to the economic growth of Liberia. We also look forward to the ratification of the Third Amendment of the MDA by the Liberian Legislature. ArcelorMittal plans to increase its mineral production in Liberia and expand the infrastructure that is vital to the country, the company and other partners in Liberia’s continued development”.
ArcelorMittal Liberia was the first company to invest in the new Liberia in 2005 and has consistently been a vital component of the country’s’ economy when it restarted the iron ore mining sector after rehabilitating the mine, township, rail and port infrastructure. It continued its commitment to the people of Liberia in 2015 when all other iron mining activities ceased in West Africa with the twin crises caused by Ebola and a crash in commodity pricing.
Recently, fifteen county base university student associations at the University of Liberia have issued a statement, urging the Liberian government conclude the ArcelorMittal 3rd Amended Mineral Development Agreement and pass same into law.
They say, they have seen nothing detrimental to the economic future of Liberia, but that while reading through the deal, all they observed were job opportunity for thousands of our hopeless youth; almost US$100 million in annual revenue, and additional economic benefits to communities where ArcelorMittal operates.
“Today we leaders of 15 university students associations at the University of Liberia categorically state that we support the rectification of the 3rd amendment of the mineral development agreement between government of Liberia and ArcelorMittal.
They said the agreement has the ability to lift thousands of people out of poverty.
According to the statement issued by the group, its findings did not only further deepen confusion, but also inspired group members capacity curiosity and suspicion that something was not right and a terrible misjudgment, with long reaching impact on today’s generation and many generations after them, was about to happen.
“This press conference, one of those never seen before in the history of student association is imperative to caution and beseech the conscience of our leaders to take the economic wellbeing of the ordinary Liberians more seriously” said George Carr, the President of the Grand Gedeh Student Association at the University of Liberia.
The statement which is under the signature of President of all 15 county students associations come in the wake of Tuesday’s declaration by the President Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate that the ArcelorMittal agreement has not been rejected by the Legislature.
“We laud the Senate Protempt for his statement yesterday ignoring the arbitrary returned of the Arcelormittal deal back to the Executive without their consultation” the statement read stressing that the student community stands with the Senate in making member of Lower House to remember that they didn’t not get elected to divert the real issue in the name of patriotism, and then make decisions that benefit a company outside of “our sovereign jurisdiction”.
‘They should remember that posterity will judge them harshly and we will be here to attest to their unpatriotic leadership”.
According to the group of student leaders, their findings discovered that all of the contentions that the AML deal was not good for Liberia were entirely inspired by a few Liberians who were hiding behind national interest to front for the Russian funded mining company, Solway, and the Guinean concessionaire, HPX-Ivanhole.
“Solway was in 2020 given an exploration license on ArcelorMittal concession area hoping that ArcelorMittal would have concluded its mining interest in Liberia after the nine left by 2030; however, AML chose to expand” the statement said adding that “Solway knew that should Arcelormittal deal be ratified, their intentions to main in Liberia would effectively end, because AML concession area given them for exploration is illegal and the illegality would correspondently expand to addition 25 years instead of the current nine years which they have to contend with”
The statement said HPX on the other hand stands to offer Liberia nothing substantive in terms of investment but that the company while using Liberian assets will pay millions of United States dollars to the Guinean authorities in royalties and revenue same as Arcelormital is doing here in Liberia, and thousands of jobs would be created for the people of Guinea should the mine get operational.
“But the hard fact remain that all of those goodies are for the people of Guinea” not Liberia.
Carr who read the statement stressed that is concerning is the fact that Guinean concession HPX-Ivanhole wants to package the mining concession in Guinea and sell off but would need to include critical rail and port infrastructure to make their sale attractive and to increase the market value of the deal.
In pursuing their access to these infrastructure, Arcelormittal the statement said yielded to the government of Liberia’s request to establish a multiuser arrangement for rail and port infrastructure in AML amended MDA, in order to accommodate HPX-Ivanhole and any other company that would desire using these infrastructure in the future.
But according to the student leaders, despite ArcelorMittal’s compromises of to establish the multiuser arrangement, HPX-Ivan wanting to make their mining package more attractive has been pushing the government of Liberia to remove ArcelorMittal entirely as the operator of the rail and Arcelormittal has registered that that would be unfair to its business interest.
This papers can confirm that when Arcelormittal came to Liberia, the country’s rail and iron port in Buchanan were entirely nonexistence and inoperable and the government of Liberia did not have the resources to rebuild them to ensure total control.
Arcelormittal had to invest US$500 million to restore those infrastructure, an investment which the company is arguing why should the government try to ignore the reality and support this ill-fated action to remove Arcelormittal as operator of the rail?
Even though the current Agreement gives AML exclusive rights over the rail and port, but the company has been willing to compromise by neutralizing its exclusivity so that Liberia can gain the additional revenue for other companies such as HPX to use the rail.
“HPX thinks that is not enough to ride on Liberia to achieve their business objective. That will never ne allowed here in this country” the students warned noting further that Liberia is a country of law and “we will respect all corporate contracts in enter into to present Liberia as a favorable investment environment where investors can direct their money and go to sleep because their investment will be protected”.
Speaking on the significance of the AML deal, Carr said as the largest foreign investor in Liberia, ArcelorMittal Liberia has invested over $1.7 billion in the country over the past 15 years. More than 2000 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase, with Liberians envisaged to fill the majority of the roles created. ArcelorMittal operates a Vocational Training Centre and provides two-year residential certificate training in mechanical and electrical trades.
He noted that if the expansion project goes ahead as planned, employees of the company will receive advanced training in the fields of mining production and operation optimization, plant maintenance, planning and execution, plant electrical operation systems, and electrical maintenance. Other training areas include plant fitting and heavy-duty mobile equipment maintenance, as well as mine production and operations.
As the Legislature resumes functions Tuesday, the student leaders called on the Lower House to join the House of Elder – the Senate to meet in conference to transparently resolve and harmonize all matters of concerns around the Arcelormittal deal to give the ordinary people who they represent the opportunity of respectable jobs and much needed resources for the economic development of our country.
They concluded that President George Weah must do the needful, engage with the company and resolve all outstanding issues that could possibly hinder the passage of the deal as it is in the supreme interest of not just Liberians but also the president’s famous ‘Liberia is ready for business” mantra.
