Liberia’s Secret Deal With Mining Company
Liberians Kept in Dark About Their Government’s Agreement With US Mining Company
Liberian lawmakers and civil society groups are demanding that the government reveal details of the agreement secretly signed with the US-based mining company Ivanhoe Atlantic before President Joseph Boakai’s meeting with Donald Trump on 9 July.
The deal allows Ivanhoe Atlantic to use Liberia’s strategic railway corridor to transport the high-grade iron ore it is mining in neighboring land-locked Guinea via the shortest route to Liberia’s Atlantic port in Buchanan, for export to the US.
Formerly known as High Power Exploration (HPX), Ivanhoe Atlantic is chaired by Peter Pham, who had served Trump’s first administration as the US Special Envoy for the Sahel & Great Lakes Regions of Africa. Earlier, he had also served on the Senior Advisory Group of the US military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) from 2008 to 2013.
Along with Ivanhoe Atlantic’s founder, Robert Friedland, and CEO Bronwyn Barnes, Pham met US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on 11 July, “to thank the US government”. His X post went on to express special gratitude for the State Department under President Trump and State Secretary Marco Rubio “for its support of our agreement with Liberia”.
Commenting on his post, Landau said that the US is “excited about business opportunities in Africa and other parts of the world that benefit US companies and foreign nations.”
Earlier, in his meeting with Boakai—one of five African heads of state invited for a summit in Washington DC with US President Donald Trump from 9-11 July—Landau lauded this “important agreement”.
Inside Liberia, however, there has been little transparency regarding this agreement valued at USD 1.8 billion, touted as one of the largest private sector investments since the end of the civil war in the West African country, among the poorest in the world.
In a letter to its president on May 3, after years of stalled negotiations, the mining company had allegedly attempted to “browbeat the Liberian government into submission and dictate sovereign policy in favor of a foreign private interest,” The Liberian Investigator reported.
Amid local media reports indicating increasing pressure on President Boakai to sign the deal to please Trump before the summit in Washington, the Liberian government announced a signing ceremony. It was scheduled at the National Investment Commission (NIC), initially on 5 July, before it was postponed to 6 July, a non-working Sunday.
“If this deal means well for Liberia, then why was it signed secretly on a Sunday”
When journalists, who had initially been invited for the ceremony on 5 July, turned up at the NIC on Sunday, authorities denied them access, citing a last-minute change in protocol revoking media coverage.
It was the US embassy that first confirmed the “estimated $1.8 billion deal” in a statement the following day, welcoming “the signing of a concession and access agreement between US owned Ivanhoe Atlantic and the Government of Liberia.”
“We find it deeply disturbing that such a monumental agreement—purportedly the largest in Liberia’s recent history—was signed in the dead of night, on a Sunday 6 July, without any prior consultation or immediate official statement from the Government,” said a joint statement by the four civil society organizations: Liberia Civil Rights Network (LCRN), Coalition for Transparent Development (CTD), Center for Public Accountability (CPA), and the Partnership for Equitable Resource Governance (PERG).
“For landmark agreements such as these … the legislature is invited and represented by the committees responsible for such concessions to witness the signing ceremony. But for this deal … country becomes aware through the U.S. Embassy publication,” said Representative Matthew Joe, lawmaker from Liberia’s Grand Bassa County’s District 3.
“If this deal means well for Liberia, then why signed it secretly on a Sunday and even bypassed the legislature?” he questioned.
Contradictory statements from ministers
“At this early stage of negotiations, the legislature has no say in it,” responded the Minister of Mines and Energy, Wilmot Paye. “What was signed was merely an expression of interest or a commitment to utilize our railway, not a legally binding agreement.”
Information Minister Jerolinmek Piah, however, said, “Yes … we signed an agreement”. But it is “not binding because we have only signed it, and the President has not reviewed it, nor has the legislature.”
He added that the agreement will be sent to the legislature on the President’s return from the US. After reassuring Trump that “Liberia has a lot of minerals” and calling on the US “to do a proper survey of our mineral resources,” President Boakai returned to Liberia on 11 July.
“Transparency is not a privilege—it is a right”
However, there have been no reports yet indicating that the agreement has since been sent to the legislature. No press conferences have been held to provide details about the deal.
Urging the international community “to encourage transparency in all investments and concession agreements made in partnership with Liberia,” the statement by the civil society group added:
“Liberia cannot afford to return to a past where backroom deals and midnight signatures robbed the country of its future. Transparency is not a privilege—it is a right. The people deserve better.”
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