The_Open_Door_deel1

-183-
area described as the Bea Mountains was included in the
concession area which the N.I.O.C. held under the 1958 concession
agreement with the Government. Directed by the Government L.M.C
suspended until further notice its exploration work until certain
matters would have been resolved with the Government.
In 1961 N.I.O.C discontinued exploration work in the Bea
Mountains and after showing renewed interest, L.M.C. resumed
exploration of the Bea Mountains under agreement with
N.I.O.C as from 1965. In the early 1970's it was realised in
Liberia that the mining operations at Bomi Hills might come to
an end during the first half of the 1970's. In view of this it
became the Government's official policy to commit the
exploitation of the Bea Mountains in such a way that it would
phase in with the phasing out of Bomi Hills. For this purpose
the Government, L.M.C, and N.I.O.C reached an agreement
relative to the Bea Mountains on September 4, 1973. By this
agreement the Government granted the parties certain specific
tax privileges and the parties agreed that L.M.C. would be
automatically vested with a 50? individed interest in the Bea
Mountains and all concession and exploration rights belonging to
it, together with the exclusive right - jointly with N.I.O.C. -
further to explore the Bea Mountains and to exploit iron ore
materials, as soon as it would have spent $ 2,000,000.00 on the
exploration of the (possible) iron ore deposits in the Bea
Mountains which amount was allowed to include the expenses made
in prior years with respect to the Bea Mountains (about $ 1.1
million) (70). As the- costs of exploration of the Bea Mountains
were allowed by the Government to be charged to expenses as
incurred (71) the Liberian Government shared in the exploration
expenses (in the same proportion as the corporate income tax
rate ).
The depletion of the Bomi Hills ore, first predicted for 1973,
later said to occur in 1975, eventually became a reality in 1977.
Although L.M.C. by 1975 had already spent over $ 2,000,000.00 on
exploration activities, the parties involved (the Government,
L.M.C, and N.I.O.C.) had since that date made no progress in the
exploitation of the Bea Mountains ore deposits. It is not easy to
allocate blame for this failure to combine the closure of the
mine at Bomi Hills with the starting of new mining activities in
the Bea Mountains : L.M.C, N.I.O.C, or the Government, although
the former definitely showed itself to be keen on continuing its
mining activities in Liberia - not in the least by spending its
money on exploration activities in the Bea Mountains whose
deposits are favourably located with respect to the existing Bomi
Hills - Monrovia-Freeport railroad. The 1973 Agreement had
obliged L.M.C. and N.I.O.C. jointly to negotiate a concession
agreement for the Bea Mountains with the Government but owing to
its financial situation in the mid-1970's N.I.O.C. could not show
any interest in a new mining venture which would involve a
considerable outlay of capital (72). The Government, finally,