The NEWS (Monrovia)
10 March 2008
Monrovia — The world steel giant, ArcelorMittal says it has acquired assortments of heavy and light equipment to bolster rehabilitation works at its concession sites in Nimba and Grand Bassa Counties.
ArcelorMittal entered an agreement valued at over US$1billion with the Liberian government last year to exploit the Nimba Mountain range iron ore deposit in Yekepa, Northeastern Liberia.
Mr. Vlado Jurcic, Rail Expert and Senior Supervisor of ArcelorMittal told reporters during a tour last Thursday that some high rail pickup trucks have already arrived in the country and that rehabilitation of the 260 kilometers railroad linking Buchanan and Yekepa has already commenced.
He said by the end of this month, over 75 pieces of equipment including 12 high rail pickup trucks are expected to arrive and would be immediately deployed on the railroad to speed up rehabilitation work.
Mr. Jurcic indicated that at the moment, ArcelorMittal has hired the services of a Liberian construction company to rehabilitate and maintain the stretch of 220 kilometers motor road from Gorblee Town in Number Three District, Grand Bassa County to Ganta, Nimba County, in order to facilitate the transportation of materials and workers who are undertaking the rehabilitation of the railroad.
He said the rehabilitation of the motor road would cost around US$2 million when it is completed and that the locals would immensely benefit from its use as a means of conveying their produce to markets.
For his part, ArcelorMittal's Project Coordinator, Robert Ferguson assured the commitment of his company to fulfill the terms of their concession agreement.
He said as the rehabilitation work was now being expanded, the services of qualified Liberians would be hired while in some instances, his company would out-source some work to domestic and foreign companies as well.
Mr. Ferguson disclosed that four domestic companies including West Wood, SSF Corporation, Gray Construction Company and Genesis Corporation are currently being hired by ArcelorMittal to undertake some of the ongoing rehabilitation works on roads and buildings within the concession areas.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 The NEWS. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
WILL BE STRIKE ON ARCELORMITTAL GALATI - ROMANIA, IF MR I.B. DON'T LEAVE THE COMPANY