The_Open_Door_deel1

-212-
net profits (20). Whilst agreeing with this section, especially
with the deductions stated under V above, the Liberian Government
accepted the financial burden which the private investors had
consciously attracted and, which, notably in the absence of a
maximum debt-equity ratio in the concession agreement, was going
to be shouldered 50? by the Treasury. The consequences for the
Treasury of financing over $ 200,000,000.00 of investments with
only $ 21,000,000.00 equity capital will against this background
be obvious. (See also the commentary given in the section on
LAMCO's debt-equity ratio).
LAMCO agreed with the Government to sell its output at prices
which will be consistent with market prices and conditions at the
time of the sale or of the contract to sell and in accordance
with good business practices. Sales to LAMCO's partner in the
Joint Venture, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, were to be
excepted from this arrangement and would be ruled by the
conditions provided in the Joint Venture Agreement.
The 1960 Concession Agreement did not provide for a revision of
the agreement and will expire on November 18, 2023. In case of
any dispute followed by arbitration the decision of the two or
three (as the case may require) arbitrators would be final and
obligatory to all parties (who renounced all appeal by this
Agreement) (21).
The dispute over the Kitoma Range
The Mining Concession Agreement concluded with LAMCO in i960
does not only have economic significance, as it resulted in the
largest iron ore mining operation in Africa, and one of the
largest in the world, but also has political implications. In a
period in which the Tubman Administration announced important
decisions, i.e. fundamental changes of practices of the past, as
in 1962 the abolishment of the recruitment policy with respect
to labour for the foreign-owned plantations and the
administrative reform granting more civil rights to the tribal
population of the Hinterland in 1964/1965, there was a collusion
between foreign investors and Liberian citizens, a confrontation
which was won by the foreign investors who could show a
legal(ized) document which superseded the rights of the Liberian
citizen who was. contesting the validity of the foreign
investors' claim.
The case relates to a dispute between LAMCO and the Liberian
Dr. Joseph N. Togba over the rights in and to the Kitoma Range,
an area situated approximately 25 miles south-west of the Nimba
Mountains. Dr. Togba, a Kru originating from Sasstown, one of
the first and few Liberian medical doctors who from 1943 till
1953 headed the National Public Health Service (until 1953
called Public Health and Sanitation), had acquired in October