MONROVIA (Reuters) – Liberia conditionally lifted a shutdown order on China Union’s iron ore Bong Mines, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
The West African country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shut down operational activities on Aug. 28, saying the company had violated environmental regulations.
The Liberian government said China Union had requested a temporary reprieve following the shut down and committed to adhering to applicable laws.
It said the EPA had conditionally permitted the company to operate for the next three months while it regularises its status.
China Union took over the Bong Mines, located around 150 km (94 miles) northeast of the capital Monrovia, with a $2.6-billion investment in 2008.
It made its first shipment of iron ore in 2014.
On Aug. 28, the EPA said it shut down Bong Mines for operating without an effluent discharge license, building a processing plant without a permit and discharging tailings into a wetland.
Iron is abundant in Liberia but the sector was decimated by decades of under-investment. Production at the Bong Mines stopped during Liberia’s 1989-2003 civil war.
(Reporting by James Harding Giahyue; Writing by Portia Crowe; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
