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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | About Landsdell K. Christie, the Liberian Iron Ore Industry and Some Related People and Events: Getting There |
Author: | Farmer, Garland R. |
Year: | 1991 |
Periodical: | Liberian Studies Journal |
Volume: | 16 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 1-26 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Liberia |
Subjects: | economic policy iron-ore mining mining companies biographies (form) History and Exploration Economics and Trade Politics and Government |
About person: | Lansdell K. Christie (- 1965) |
Abstract: | Lansdell K. Christie's Liberian Mining Company (LMC) was the first fruit of the 'Open Door Policy' of Liberia's President W.V.S. Tubman. Christie was an American entrepreneur who first risked his own money, first had African directors on his company's board, first provided for African government participation in the profits of a mining venture, first set participation as high as 50 percent, built Liberia's first railroad, first offered and financed the purchase of mining company shares by the Liberian public, and first led another company (the Monrovia Port Management Company) which pushed the Open Door further ajar. Besides providing a brief biography of Christie, this paper examines, amongst others, the negotiations over the iron ore concession, which was granted to LMC, despite vocal and active opposition, on January 22, 1946; the take-over efforts by the Liberia Company; the opening of the Freeport of Monrovia, an event of major importance to the iron ore project, in 1948; the Monrovia Port Management Company; and the role of Republic Steel Corporation, which bought controlling interest in LMC in 1949. The first trainload of Bomi ore reached the port in 1951. In 1953 LMC's concession was revised, which was a major milestone in the Open Door Policy, establishing practices such as profit participation by Liberia ranging up to 50 percent, and Liberian membership on the board of directors. |