Mines and Energy Minister R. Matenokay Tingban told an extractive industry town hall in Bomi County that Liberia negotiates mining agreements at a disadvantage because companies have usually completed extensive geological work before talks, while the government lacks comparable data on its own deposits. Earlier assessments, including work by the US Geological Survey, identified mineral occurrences but did not establish commercially recoverable quantities in many areas, he said.
To close the gap, the government is seeking investors to fund detailed geological surveys of the quantity and distribution of the country’s minerals, and to build a gold refinery. Tingban said contacts with potential investors opened on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The remarks set up Liberia’s first international mining and energy conference and expo, LIMEC 2026, scheduled for October 28 and 29 at the Farmington Hotel in Harbel. Organisers project more than $3 billion in planned investment around the sector, iron ore shipments from the principal concession reaching 20 million tonnes in 2026, and national output potentially rising to 25 to 30 million tonnes a year as new producers start. Geological studies completed in 2025 identified lithium, cobalt, manganese, neodymium and uranium occurrences in several parts of the country, according to the organisers.
The sequence follows Monday’s reporting here on Liberia’s $432 million mining revenue and its mining law overhaul. A state that concedes it is data poor is signalling that survey partnerships and domestic processing will rank ahead of simply auctioning acreage.