GRAND CAPE MOUNT COUNTY – The Liberian government, represented by Vice President Jeremiah Koung, received a face-to-face briefing from Bea Mountain Mining Corporation executives over the weekend regarding the company’s existing operations and an ambitious underground development. The visit took place in Grand Cape Mount County, near Kinjor, during a pivotal point for the New Liberty Gold Mine. Officials from the company told the vice president that the plant currently processes 30,000 tonnes of rock per month to produce roughly 900 kilograms of gold, with each batch of crushed rock yielding roughly 220 kilograms.
According to Liberia’s 16th EITI report, Bea Mountain Mining Corporation shipped nearly 12,146 kg of gold worth over $653 million in fiscal year 2023. During the visit, the vice president was told that Bea Mountain has completed surface open-pit extraction and is now exploring the gold deposit further within the mountain. The company is reportedly working with Chinese contractors to construct a 1,000-meter-deep, seven-meter-diameter shaft in addition to installing ventilation units. A pump station has been installed at the base of the open pit to manage water drainage while underground operations take place.
According to the corporate history of the immediate parent company, Avesoro Resources, which is based in Canada, underground mining at New Liberty started in 2020, open-pit mining ended in 2022, and a second processing plant was put into service in 2021. As a result, the Vice President’s visit coincides with the subterranean phase’s transition into a more sophisticated and visible stage, one that necessitates ongoing investment and a completely different regulatory and safety framework than surface mining.
The Vice President’s visit also coincides with a 2023 renegotiation of the mine’s legal basis, which has garnered criticism from scholars and campaigners for transparency. Bea Mountain’s mineral rights in Liberia are governed by a Mineral Development Agreement that was first signed in 2001 and covers a 1,000 square kilometre contract area in Grand Cape Mount County. In 2013, the agreement was revised and revised to include a provision giving the government an undiluted 10% equity stake in the business.
A First Amendment to the agreement was adopted by the National Legislature in September 2023, which reset the mine’s operational term to 25 years from the amendment’s effective date, with a potential 25-year extension. Additionally, the government’s ownership position was cut from 10% to 5% by the 2023 amendment. On October 23, 2023, the Ministry of Mines and Energy issued an amended Class A Mining License that reflected the new provisions.
At the same time, the mine’s working scope was extended for a generation, the nation’s stake in its most productive gold mine was cut in half. According to the government, the revised terms accurately represent the amount of money needed to maintain underground activities. The concession renegotiation, according to critics, gave the firm a longer runway at the expense of delivering less to the state.
The 2013 contract mandates a 25 percent corporate income tax ceiling during the stabilization period, and the royalty rate on gold is fixed at 3 percent on a net smelter return basis, payable within 30 days of each month-end shipment. In the early contract years, a community development fund obligation calls for yearly contributions of $100,000, which increases to $250,000 starting in year 11.
In comparison to gold export earnings of about $653 million in FY2023 alone, those community fund numbers are, by all accounts, small. Government income attributable to Bea Mountain are reportedly listed in LEITI’s FY2023 reconciliation report at roughly $33.47 million for that fiscal year. In an examination focusing on the previous 18 months from July 2021 to December 2022, the Associated Press revealed that the corporation gave $37.8 million to government coffers while exporting more than $576 million worth of gold.
The ratio, which is about six cents for every dollar of gold exported, has frequently caused controversy in Liberian media and civil society. Whether that ratio represents structural terms that consistently benefit the operator or valid deductions under the stabilization and cost-recovery provisions of the MDA.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Liberia Revenue Authority oversaw a multi-agency compliance examination in May 2025 that examined export protocols at Roberts International Airport and examined Bea Mountain’s smelting, packing, weighing, and storing processes. According to the LRA, the exercise verified regular operating practices. It has not been made public whether any enforceable conclusions were reached.
Three pollution events between 2016 and 2023 were validated by laboratory testing, according to a clarification released by Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency in February 2026. These events included fish deaths connected to cyanide, copper sulphate, and arsenic leaks from the mine’s tailings infrastructure, as well as cyanide concentrations exceeding allowable limits.
A legally binding agreement for the relocation and compensation of the downstream community of Jikandor was reached in May 2025, according to the EPA, which also noted that it issued remedial directions and mandated engineering work at the tailings site in response to those incidents.
Findings of an unapproved wastewater system, claims that company representatives blocked EPA inspectors’ access to laboratory records during at least one investigation cycle, and concerns about whether recommended fines were consistently assessed and collected were all documented by investigative reporting by The DayLight, a Liberian outlet, and The Gecko Project, an international investigative platform.
Credit: Lennart Dodoo
