FACT CHECK: Bea Mountain Did Not Extract 1.2 Million Kilograms of Gold in 2023, As Claimed By Alex Cummings

Published: April 27, 2026

On April 16, 2026, Alexander B. Cummings, political leader of the Alternative National Congress, claimed in a video that in 2023, Bea Mountain Mining Corporation extracted 1.2 million kilograms of gold from Liberia, valued between $650 and $700 million.

Mr. Cummings made this claim while discussing Liberia’s concession regime and how the country can get value for its natural resources, citing the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) report as the source of the data he provided.

The Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is a member of the EITI – a global Standard to promote the open and accountable management of extractive resources. LEITI works through a Secretariat, guided by a multi-stakeholder arrangement comprising the Government, Civil Society Organizations, and Private companies, to improve the governance of the Extractive sector in Liberia.

The Claim

His exact words were: “If we look at historical numbers around 2023, the ELITI suggested that there was 1.2 million kilograms of gold extracted and exported from Liberia, valued at around $650 -700 million dollars.”

Rating Justification

To verify this claim, we reviewed the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s 16^th report for FY2023.

The LEITI 16th Report FY2023 is the latest comprehensive disclosure by the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, covering activities in Liberia’s extractive sector for the 2023 fiscal year.

We found that the total gold production in Liberia for FY2023 was 12,379 kilograms, with Bea Mountain alone accounting for 12,146 kilograms, valued at $653 million

Conclusion

We conclude, based on these findings, that the claim made by Mr. Alexander B. Cummings that Bea Mountain Mining Corporation extracted 1.2 million kilograms of gold from Liberia in 2023 is incorrect.

According to the LEITI 16th Report for FY2023, gold extracted and exported by Bea Mountain Mining Corporation in 2023 amounted to 12,146 kilograms valued at
about US $653.6 million

However, he is correct that the company generated between $650 million and $700 million from gold production that year. According to the LEITI report, the 12,146 kilograms of gold extracted by Bea Mountain Mining Corporation in 2023 were valued at US$653.60 million.

Editor’s Note:

This fact check was produced by Local Voices Liberia with support from the European Union through the Liberia Media Empowerment Program (LMEP). The funder had no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this fact-check report.  Read the original fact-check report here.