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Elenilto to Spend $2.4 Billion on Liberian Iron Mines (Update1)
By resourceINTEL · February 15, 2010 · 9:13 am · Leave a Comment
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Elenilto, a unit of Israel’s Engelinvest Group, will spend $2.4 billion developing Liberia’s Western Cluster iron ore deposit, the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy said.
The investment will allow Elenilto to produce as much as 1.1 billion metric tons of ore, the ministry said in a statement handed to reporters today in the capital, Monrovia.
Elenilto was on Jan. 28 awarded the rights to develop the Western Cluster project by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. The project consists of three deposits and two idled mines, which were closed in 1976 and 1985 during Liberia’s two civil wars, the last of which ended in 2003.
As part of the agreement, Elenilto will pay Liberia a one- time fee of $25 million and an annual tax equivalent to 21 percent of the company’s profit from the deposits, according to the ministry’s statement. It will also pay $3.1 million a year towards community development, it said…read mroe at the Bloomberg
