The_Open_Door_deel1

XVIII
officer who had served in Liberia during the Second World War.
He obtained a concession agreement for the exploitation of the
rich iron ore deposits of Bomi Hills, discovered by a Dutch
company in the 193O's,and organised the first iron ore company
in Liberia: the Liberia Mining Company. The mining operations
proved extremely profitable and within a few years the $ 10 million
which had been invested had been earned back. Total profit
income for the private owners of the mining company eventually
totaled nearly $ 140 million within the 1951 - 1977 period. The
Liberian Government had virtually given away these natural resources
and as years went by resentment against the unfair distribution
of benefits between the concessionaire and the Liberian
Treasury grew as in the case of Firestone. A large part of
this Chapter is devoted to the numerous disputes which gradually
began to characterise the relations between the two parties.
The final part of the Chapter deals with the Mano River iron ore
deposits which? since 19588 have been exploited by the National
Iron Ore Company. This company is 50$ owned by the Liberian Government
which made a f 5 million cash payment to finance its
participation. The other 50% is partly owned by Liberian shareholders
and by the Liberia Mining Company. The problems which
the management of the mining company, the Mine Management Associates
Ltd.-a'company especially created for this purpose by
Lansdell Christie - encountered were many and resulted in only
I 2.5 million income for the Liberian Government-shareholder.
As against this meagre income for the Liberian Treasury, total
sales income of the mining company amounted to more than a
quarter billion dollars in the 19o2 - 1977 period.
Chapter 8 discusses the operations of two iron ore mining companies
which are chiefly financed with European capital in contrast
to the two iron ore mining companies of the preceding
Chapter which were both financed with U.S. funds. The first
company^ the Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company (the
LAMCO Joint Venture), turned into the largest iron ore mining
company in Africa and one of Africa's largest companies. In
this case there was also one man behind the original concession
agreement: Lee Detwiler from the U.S.A. The original concession
agreement had been signed as early as 1953 but it took another
ten years before the mining venture became operational. The difficulties
which had to be overcome when looking for the necessary
investment capital were largely reponsible for this delay.
The result was an extremely complicated organisational and ownership
structure which also affected the Liberian Government's
share of the substantial profits which the Joint Venture realised
in the 1963 - 1977 period. Whereas iron ore worth more
than 1.3 billion dollars was shipped in this period - yielding
some $ 350 million profits - the Liberian Treasury's income
from these iron ore deposits, located in the Nimba Mountains
near the borders with Guinea and with Ivory Coast, was rela-'
tively low: about I 130 million. This was less than the amount
the banks financing the investments needed, earned on this venture.
How this was possible is explained in detail in this Chapter.
Also included is the dispute between the LAMCO Joint