Urban\u2019s mining machine in Todee the company used during its time of prospecting. The DayLight\/Esau J. Farr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIts work also violates the Environmental Protection and Management Law of Liberia due to the failure of the company to seek environmental approval. Mohammed Sirleaf, Urban\u2019s liaison officer, said a team from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had visited Urban\u2019s worksite and cautioned them. Violators of the law face up to 10 years of imprisonment, a US$25,000 fine, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sirleaf conceded its operations are illegal. He said they were in the process of acquiring the right to mine in Todee through the acquisition of a valid mining license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRecently, we had a guest from the Ministry of Mine and Energy\u2014I think a Regional Agent\u2014and he advised us to have a legal license to avoid future embarrassment with authorities,\u201d Sirleaf said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some residents are aware of the illegality of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bendu Kotoe, a women\u2019s leader in Ding Clan refused to sign it. \u201cThe mining license they are supposed to bring, we have not seen it yet. So, we don\u2019t agree for them to work,\u201d Kotoe said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paramount Kanakour regretted signing the document upon speaking to The DayLight. \u201cFor me, I am not aware of this and I am not in the mining sector. I don\u2019t know the criteria for getting a mining license. So, if they are saying they don\u2019t have the rightful documents, the government can take its course [of action],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA screenshot of records of the Ministry of Mines and Energy shows that Urban and Rural Services Inc. does not have any active mining licenses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe have a committee set up to look into such matters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When contacted, Brandy claimed she only attested to the illegal MoU. \u201cI am not the one who signed the MoU. You are a journalist, do your investigation and see who all signed it and who attested to it,\u201d Brandy told this paper in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contrary to her claim, Brandy actually signed the document. In fact, it was Representative Morris who attested to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brandy also claimed the MoU was meant to only get Todee\u2019s consent for Urban to operate in the area. However, DayLight\u2019s visit to the area showed that the company has already started its operations. This reporter saw mining equipment paving roads in the area and mineworkers building a camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, Urban has already started paying host communities. Sirleaf said the company had already paid the L$100,000 for February, the beginning of the agreement. The Paramount Chief Kanakour confirmed the payment. The Land Rights Act recognizes rural communities\u2019 right to consent to projects on their lands but does not require payment for that consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representative Morris, in whose district Todee falls, said he attested to the document because he did not know Urban\u2019s licenses had expired. Later in the interview, he said he had thought the MoU was for exploration, not for mining. His statement is not backed by facts, as the MoU clearly authorizes Urban to \u201ccarry out gold mining activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On using the letterhead of the National Legislature for the MoU, Morris said he did that on purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe used my official legislative letterhead because I want to take responsibility for anything coming out of the MoU,\u201d Rep. Morris said in the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funding for this story was provided by the Green Livelihood Alliance (GLA 2.0) through the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI). The DayLight maintained complete editorial independence over the story\u2019s content.<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top: Urban and Rural Services Inc. Current Campsite at the Kponneh Mountain in Todee District By Esau J. Farr TODEE \u2013 Representative Lawrence Morris of Montserrado District Number One, and County Superintendent Florence Brandy have signed an illegal memorandum of understanding authorizing a company to mine gold in the mineral-potential district of Todee. Morris […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,82,1],"tags":[1718,107,1602,1758,1755,1756,1757],"class_list":["post-3529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-extractive","category-investigations","category-mining","tag-illegal-mining","tag-liberia","tag-ministry-of-mines-and-energy","tag-montserrado-county","tag-representative-lawrence-morris","tag-superintendent-florence-brandy","tag-todee"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t\tHome<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tExtractive<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tMining<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span>\u00bb<\/span>\n\t\t\tMontserrado Authorities Approve Illegal Mining Operations in Todee\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68"},{"label":"Extractive","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/extractive\/"},{"label":"Mining","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/category\/extractive\/mining\/"},{"label":"Montserrado Authorities Approve Illegal Mining Operations in Todee","link":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2023\/04\/18\/montserrado-authorities-approve-illegal-mining-operations-in-todee\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3529"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3547,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions\/3547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-04-13-at-11.13.57.jpeg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Screen-Shot-2023-04-18-at-5.43.24-PM-1024x477.png\")