Published: November 13, 2026
MONROVIA — President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s Protect Our Resources Taskforce inspected a Lower Montserrado County mining site scarred by deep pits and damaged creeks, where one company accused the Ministry of Mines and Energy of “aiding and abetting” illicit mining and another insisted its excavator was there only for exploration.
Col. Abraham Kromah, the taskforce’s chairman, led a team of joint state security personnel to Ben Ben Town. A Liberian Investigator reporter who accompanied the inspection saw extensively excavated land, damaged creeks and waterways, and numerous deep pits across sections of the mining area.
Abraham Turay, co-chair of Indigenous Group Company, told Kromah that ministry officials knew about the disputed operations but failed to act.
“They are aiding and abetting this illicit activity here,” Turay said.
Turay also blamed Gem Rock, a company operating in the area, for environmental destruction and disputes over mining in the community, and questioned the use of heavy equipment at the site.
“Can you imagine? Look at the pit,” he said. “Even if you have a legitimate company that you call Gem Rock, will you allow people to extract your minerals like this? Will you allow people to bring excavators onto your property like this?”
Albertson King, a geologist representing Gem Rock, rejected the suggestion that the company’s excavator was being used to extract minerals.
“The excavator we have up here is the one we use as a company to prepare the drilling platform that you see behind you,” King said. “We don’t use excavators for mining purposes. We use them for digging our trenches, which is part of our exploration process and procedures.”
Turay also told Kromah that a man died at the site last year in circumstances connected to the dispute, and that the matter is before the courts.
“But come on, last year, there was a guy who died here on the field, and we have evidence of everything that happened,” he said.
Turay said Judge Ousman F. Feika, assigned circuit judge of Criminal Court ‘C’ issued a stay order on the disputed activities and that Gem Rock disregarded it. He said ministry representatives later visited the site with Liberia National Police officers from Careysburg, and accused the ministry of suppressing information about the death and knowingly allowing the activities to continue.
The Liberian Investigator could not independently verify the death, the stay order or its alleged violation, or the claims that ministry officials suppressed information or facilitated illicit mining. The newspaper had not obtained the relevant court documents. It also could not verify Gem Rock’s licensing status or determine which operators caused the damage seen during the inspection.
The taskforce also found firearms, machetes and other items during the inspection. It could not immediately be established who owned them or whether they were linked to any unlawful activity.
Asked for comment, Richard Manuba, the ministry’s director of communications, said the ministry would respond through the proper authority. He did not address the accusations or the reported death.
The Ben Ben Town visit followed an earlier inspection at Youth Camp, another mining community in Lower Montserrado County, where security personnel briefly detained three young Liberians found mining. They were released after the taskforce said its targets were the people and operators responsible for illegal mining and environmental destruction.
When the team reached Ben Ben Town, about 15 minutes away, some of the hundreds of residents gathered there attempted to resist the inspection. Calm returned after the taskforce assured them it had not come to make indiscriminate arrests or use force.
“We are Liberians, and we have some friends of ours here. We are not here to spoil anybody’s business,” Kromah told the gathering. “We want to make sure that what you are doing here is properly organized and that your activities are conducted in the right way.”
He asked miners to choose representatives for each section of the site so the taskforce and government agencies could deal with them as a group. “We want to make sure that we can give you legitimacy in what you are doing so that you will know you are legitimately operating here,” he said.
Kromah directed the parties in the dispute to attend a meeting at the taskforce’s Monrovia headquarters early next week to present their claims and supporting documents.
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