The_Open_Door_deel1

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appears from the experiences of the few gold mining companies
which attempted to establish modern large-scale mining methods.
|| Any analysis of the diamond and/or gold production in Liberia
|| suffers from the disappearance of concession agreements, the
;! absence or incompleteness of files, and from unreliable produc-
|| tion and export data. Smuggling of diamonds from Sierra Leone
|| into Liberia is excessive but the exact quantity and value of
I; these smuggled precious stones are difficult to estimate. In
I? Sierra Leone diamond mining operations started after the dis-
| covery of the first gemstone in 1930, and notably after the Gov-
;'s eunment of Sierra Leone had seized control of the export of
j diamonds, in 1959, it became very attractive and profitable to
j take advantage of the weak security measures and the adminis-
:| trative underdevelopment of both countries, and to export dia-
:; monds through one of Liberia's air or seaports. The latter's exj
port figures include some, but not all, of these diamonds of
•••'] Sierra Leonean origin though without them being specified (15).
I Gold production figures are misleading, if at all available. In
I Annual Reports of a leading government agency in this respect,
j such as the Ministry of Lands and Mines, it was stated on more
j than one occasion that it was impossible to give the exact value
and quantity of gold found in Liberia. Owing to restrictions and
a purchasing price ceiling, imposed by the Government, much of
j the gold produced in the country was sold to local goldsmiths or
| smuggled out of the country, so as to take advantage of the
j great difference between the official purchasing price of gold
.i and the (rising) international price of gold in the 197O's (16),
j An Assistant Minister with years of experience told the present
| author in 1977 that he was puzzled as the export figures for the
j previous year showed a (small) quantity of gold exported whereas
! no production of gold had been recorded in that year (17),
| In the discussion below exploratory activities will not be dealt
I with in detail, nor will an attempt be made to provide an exhausj
tive list of companies, foreign owned, which have engaged in exi
ploratory activities under agreements with the Government. The
' reasons for this are stated above. The agricultural companies
j with mining rights are also excluded here because they did not bej
gin any mining operations either.
1 Diamond mining concession policy and practices during the
Tubman Administration
|
] The first of the post-war foreign diamond mining companies which
was brought into the country by President William Tubman after
the diamondiferous areas had been cleared of thousands of illegal
miners was the "Liberian Development Corporation", a U.S. company
• which, however, never went into significant production. As it
even did little prospecting the Government revoked the agreement
I a few years later and gave the concession area, about 20 miles
| along the Lofa river, to the "Vaspal Diamond Mining Company", a
company owned by Liberian citizens (18).
i
] On June 8, 1960 a Diamond Mining Concession Agreement was granted