The Acting Supernatant of Bomi County, Amos Cooper, has said that Western Cluster remains the best friend for the county and all should work for the betterment of the country.
Cooper made the statement last week at a town hall meeting with affected communities in Bomi.
He said when Western Cluster started operation in 2011—at the time they had not shipped any iron ore yet, they made a series of contributions.
“When they came in 2011 they still gave assistance to the county and the county benefited immensely,” he said.
He added, “When you check around the county, you will see some school buildings and other places they worked on. They have made some impacts on the lives of this county. I want to applaud Western Cluster for that.”
With respect to contributions by Western Cluster towards the county social development fund, he said the company has paid US$2.5 million, and they were expecting the balance US$2.5 million.
He called on them to remit the balance so they can enable the county to undertake development projects in the county.
He told the affected communities that the government was concerned about them, and that they will continue to engage the company so they all can remain on track.
For his part, a representative from Western Cluster, Sam Brown, said the company intends to work with everyone. “We are thinking about other areas that we can go to. We have begun fixing the roads from Borbor Town to Borla. We also built hand pumps and intend to build more handpumps.”
Western Cluster Liberia is a subsidiary of Sesa Goa, a Vedanta Group Company engaged in iron ore mining in western Liberia.
The company said since 2011 it has invested approximately US$300 million in the country, including payment for the concession rights; US$15.5 million payment to the Community Development Fund; construction of two major bridges, the Klay intersection bridge and the Gui Town bridge; upgrading and maintaining the Tubmanburg-to-St. Paul River bridge road, and several other communities and infrastructural development initiatives.