Liberia's largest gold miner spilled dangerous chemicals, records show

Описание: (2 Mar 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++PART MUTE++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
River Cess, Liberia - 29 January 2026
1. Various aerials of Bea Mountain mining site ++MUTE++
2. Various of forest in River Cess
3. Wide of Liberia's flag
4. SOUNDBITE (Pidgin English) Samuel Sarkpah, River Cess resident:
"I am not happy with the company. The first time they came here, we were all happy. But our people, that we sent to the company, we are not happy with the agreement the mayor signed with the company."
5. Various of residents of River Cess
6. SOUNDBITE (Pidgin English) Samuel Sarkpah, River Cess resident:
"When a company comes to invest in a particular place, it is for the benefit of the people, but we are not benefiting anything. Look at our school campus. When the company came, they promised that they were going to build a school, nothing is been done. Look at our community school, nothing. The community clinic too, nothing has been done. So, how would we be expected to be happy? Now if you go to the Cestos River that we were depending on for mining to get our daily bread, we cannot find any gold."
7. Mid of Bea Mountain signpost, reading (English): "Bea Mountain mining corp (BMMC)"
8. Mid of a river

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alberta, Canada - 24 February 2026
++VIA VIDEO CALL++
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mandy Olsgard, toxicologist:
"This is one of the most contaminated areas I've looked at. The concentrations of arsenic and cyanide in that river, if that were occurring in Canada, (it) would've triggered full-scale investigations because there were death of fish and there was human health complaints.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
River Cess, Liberia - 29 January 2026
10. Various of residents sitting, walking

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alberta, Canada - 24 February 2026
++VIA VIDEO CALL++
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Mandy Olsgard, toxicologist:
"I think it's all in the government's hands. The government really does need to monitor and manage these mines to protect the local villages and the people that need the water and these foods for their way of life. Again, I get the sense that these villages; there's not just a grocery store you can go to whether people have the money or if that grocery store even has the foods that they want. They want to be fishing from the river. They want to be consuming the water from these rivers, using them to wash their clothes and their way of life. So, the government needs to make sure that the rules imposed on these mines protect those ways of life.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
River Cess, Liberia - 29 January 2026
12. Mid of board reading (English) ‘Liberia Land Rights Acts of 2018’
13. Mid of River Cess residents in forest
14. Wide aerial of River Cess County ++MUTE++
STORYLINE:
For generations, families in Jikandor village fished and drank water from a river that runs through Liberia’s dense rainforest.

Now, toxic pollution is forcing them to leave, according to residents.

Villagers blame Bea Mountain Mining Corporation, Liberia’s largest gold miner.

When dead fish rise to the surface, residents said they alerted authorities.

Over several years, cyanide, arsenic and copper repeatedly leaked from Bea Mountain's substandard facilities at levels that Liberia's Environmental Protection Agency described as above legal limits.

That's according to EPA reports that were taken down from its site but later retrieved, as well as interviews with government officials, experts and former company employees.

They provide the most comprehensive accounting yet of the spills.


The records also highlight challenges in government oversight.


















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