By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 3 (Radarr Africa) – ArcelorMittal Liberia plans to keep operating in Liberia for roughly four more decades or longer, and expects annual iron ore exports to rise above 20 million tons by 2027, the company’s chief executive said at a mining conference last week, according to The New Dawn of Monrovia.
CEO Michiel van der Merwe spoke on Wednesday, October 28, at the opening of LIMEC 2026, the Liberia International Mining and Energy Conference and Expo, held at the Farmington Hotel in Harbel, Margibi County. The New Dawn’s report was distributed by allAfrica on October 30.
Van der Merwe said the company has invested nearly $4 billion in mining, rail and port infrastructure, power, employment and community development. Annual iron ore exports are expected to grow from fewer than 5 million tons in 2024 to more than 20 million tons by 2027, the report said.
The longer-term target is higher. “We are also planning for future growth to 30 million tons at the mines,” van der Merwe said, as quoted by the newspaper. Its report said production capacity at the mines is planned to reach that level, and that the second phase of the expansion includes Liberia’s first large-scale iron ore concentrator.
The company helped revive Liberia’s iron ore sector in 2011 and has operated through three presidential administrations, according to the report.
Much of the discussion centred on the railway. The 245-kilometre line from Tokadeh to Buchanan links the mines in Nimba County to the Port of Buchanan in Grand Bassa County. ArcelorMittal has invested about $800 million in rehabilitating and expanding the line, although the government owns both the railway and the port, The New Dawn reported.
A Third Amendment to the company’s Mineral Development Agreement, ratified earlier in 2026, sets out how other companies can gain access to the railway, the report said. Van der Merwe described the line as a multi-user asset that other companies can use.
Under a set of Rail Systems Operating Principles, an independent operator would manage the rail corridor from 2030, the newspaper reported. The company has also reached an understanding with the government on a National Rail Authority, according to the report.
The New Dawn quoted van der Merwe as saying that no single company, government institution or investor can achieve all of Liberia’s goals alone, in a call for collaboration among the parties involved in the sector.
The figures in the report describe a steep change in the scale of the operation. Exports of fewer than 5 million tons in 2024 and more than 20 million tons expected by 2027 imply at least a fourfold increase in three years, and the 30 million tons planned for the mines would be six times the 2024 export level. The report does not say when the 30 million tons would be reached, nor does it give a cost for the second phase.
Iron ore is a bulk commodity that depends on rail and port capacity to reach buyers, which is why the open-access arrangements for the Tokadeh to Buchanan line feature so prominently in the company’s plans. The report said the independent operator would take over management of the corridor from 2030, while the government would remain the owner of the rail and port assets.
The remarks were made at the opening of LIMEC 2026, according to the report.
