House Delays Hearing on AML US$800 Million Deal

The Speaker of the 54th Legislature, Bhofal Chambers.

 

 

House Delays Hearing on AML US$800 Million Deal

The first public hearing on the US$800 million agreement between the government and ArcelorMittal Holdings has been delayed until December 6, at which time the National Investment Concession (NIC) is expected to be present. 

The hearing, which was originally scheduled for Friday was delayed after the Chairman of the House Joint Committee on Investment and Concession notified his colleagues (Committee members) of a letter from the NIC requesting a deferment.

"I would like to extend my sincere apology to the Honorable House's Joint Committee due to my inability to attend the said public hearing.  I am currently out of Monrovia on an assessment tour with an investment delegation visiting the country, and (I will be) back in over the weekend," the NIC chairman Molowuleh B. Gray wrote.

He added: "Accordingly, I crave the indulgence of the Joint Committee to kindly reschedule my appearance for the week of December 6th."

The NIC excused then forced the House to delay the hearing for December 6. The NIC chairs the Inter-Ministerial Concession and Investment Committee,  the government body responsible to negotiate all concession agreements. 

The AML is seeking an extension of its mineral development agreement (MDA) beyond 2034. 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 had been aiming to expand output to 15-million tonnes much sooner, but those plans were put on hold in 2014 when it declared force majeure on the expansion project because of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

But with this amended agreement,  annual production is expected to increase to 15-million tonnes during the first phase of expansion and could rise as high as 30-million tonnes. If the agreement is ratified, the government within the next three years and that the government would receive a total of $65-million from ArcelorMittal.

The project, according to the government and AML, is expected to create 1 000 direct jobs, 2 000 temporary construction-related jobs. The amended AML deal is an existing of the 2011 amended agreement.

With huge mining and agriculture potential, Liberia has attracted billions of dollars in resource investment since the end of a 1989 to 2003 civil war, but its infrastructure remains underdeveloped and most of its five-million people live in poverty.