President Joseph Nyumah Boakai is expected to join four leaders from the continent this week in the United States to discuss “commercial opportunities,” thanks to an invitation from US President Donald Trump.
Monrovia, July 7, 2025: Per the invitation, President Trump will host leaders from Liberia, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal at the White House from July 9 to 11 to discuss business opportunities in Africa.
President Trump is said to hold the view that African countries have incredible business opportunities that could benefit the people of America and countries on the African continent.
The Boakai invite
However, the invitation for President Boakai comes at a time that an American-owned Mining Company, High Power Exploration (HPX), now Ivanhoe Atlantic, with strong political ties with individuals within the Trump administration, is pushing the Boakai administration to seal a railway infrastructure deal with the company as a condition precedent before he travels.
Sources within the corridor of the Executive Mansion say Trump officials with a link to Ivanhoe want President Boakai to present the signed deal to him (Trump) at the meeting.
Ivanhoe currently owns a mining site in neighboring Guinea and is pushing the idea that it wants unlimited access to Liberia’s national asset (the Railway) to transport its ore from Guinea through the Port of Buchanan, in Grand Bassa County.
But sources say Ivanhoe’s demand for unlimited access and, if possible, semi-control of the Liberian railway is not to transport iron ores from Guinea, because Guinea is set to commission its own railway in December.
Pushing for a deal to swing Liberia’s railway.
Sources clothed with information to the HPX deal, which have seen former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah unjustly slapped with a US-Travel restriction because of US30 million paid to the Weah regime in good faith for a deal that was never seal say Ivanhoe’s push for unlimited access to the railway is to swing it to a third party.
The source stated that Ivanhoe’s push for unlimited railway access aims to increase its value for sale to a third party, which would, in return, operate the railway in a deal reminiscent of the MedTech Scientific deal, which continues to divert 80 percent of the country’s import revenue to a foreign company.
This would also, in return, reduce revenue intake from existing companies like ArcelorMittal Liberia, which will now count such payments as expenditures, thereby reducing their taxes owed to the Liberian Government.
Who owns Ivanhoe Atlantic?
Ivanhoe Atlantic, based in Delaware and using a Post Office box as its mailing address, was previously known as High Power Exploration (HPX) and was renamed Ivanhoe Atlantic in December 2024 by Robert Friedland.
Friedland is the founder of Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines. LTD. Friedland also founded I-Pulse, Inc., the majority stockholder of Ivanhoe Atlantic.
The deal comes amid Arcelor Mittal Liberia’s existing MDA
Despite the imminent deal between the Government of Liberia and Ivanhoe Liberia, an existing agreement exists between the Liberian Government and ArcelorMittal Liberia, which grants the latter the right to operate the railway for 25 years.
The amended Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) signed in 2021 between the Government of Liberia and ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) is at the center of this dilemma. The agreement, originally valued at $800 million and now expanded to $1.2 billion, outlines a bold commitment by AML to invest in a modern iron ore concentrator, increase production capacity, create over 2,000 new direct jobs, and revitalize local supply chains and vocational training across mining communities.
The new MDA has been bedeviled with controversies and conspiracies over the claim that AML wants to monopolize the railway and serve as a player and referee, a claim the company has continued to debunk.
Recently, AML debunked claims that it is blocking other companies from using the Yekepa-Buchanan railway as false. “This is simply not true,” the company said.
According to the company, AML supports a system where multiple companies can use the railway fairly, under clear rules set by the government.
“When AML first came to Liberia, the railway was not working, and the government didn’t have the money to fix it. As part of its agreement, AML fully repaired and has been maintaining the railway so that mining exports and other businesses could continue,” it said.
Fear of legal issues
There are fears of potential legal issues, as the Government of Liberia signs a railway access deal with Ivanhoe amidst an existing MDA with AML, which gives it 100 percent control over the Yekepa-Buchanan railway. -Writes Othello B. Garblah.
