Monrovia: ArcelorMittal signed a deal Friday to stay at least 25 more years in Liberia, where it will at least triple its iron ore production and invest an additional $800 million, said the company’s executive chairman. And the president of Liberia said.
ArcelorMittal Executive Chairman Lakshmi Mittal said at the signing ceremony that during the first phase of expansion, the annual production will increase to 15 million tonnes and may increase to 30 million tonnes.
The steel and mining company first signed a 25-year deal with Liberia in 2005 and shipped the first iron ore from its Yekepa mine in 2011.
It was aiming to expand production to 15 million tonnes very soon, but those plans were put on hold in 2014 when it announced a force majeure on the expansion project due to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Liberian President George V said production would reach 1.5 million tonnes in the next three years and the government would receive a total of $65 million from ArcelorMittal.
Wei said the project is expected to create 1,000 direct jobs, 2,000 temporary construction-related jobs and about 4,000 indirect jobs.
“The government considers you an important partner in its campaign to accelerate the growth of our economy under our National Development Plan,” he told Mittal.
Liberia, with vast mining and agricultural potential, has attracted billions of dollars of resource investment since the end of the 1989–2003 civil war, but its infrastructure is underdeveloped and its 5 million people live in poverty.
Weh said the deal, which is an amendment to the existing agreement, still needs to be approved by his cabinet and parliament.
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