Liberia’s largest gold miner repeatedly spilled dangerous chemicals, records show
JIKANDOR, Liberia — For generations, families in Jikandor village have fished and drank from the river that runs through Liberia’s dense rainforest. Now, toxic pollution is driving them away.
They blame Liberia’s largest gold producer, Bea Mountain Mining Corporation. When dead fish float to the surface, they say, they know to notify authorities. But for years, there have been few answers.
“If we don’t move, we will die,” said village chief Mustapha Pabai.
For several years, cyanide, arsenic and copper repeatedly leaked from substandard Bea Mountain facilities at levels that Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency described as above legal limits. That’s according to EPA reports that were removed from its site but later recovered, as well as interviews with government officials, experts and former company employees.
They provide the most comprehensive accounting of spills to date. EPA documents also show that Bea Mountain failed to promptly alert regulators after a 2022 spill and previously blocked government inspectors as they tried to access the company’s laboratory and view test results.
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This story was reported in collaboration with The Gecko Project, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on environmental issues. The reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropic organizations, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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The incidents demonstrate lapses in corporate responsibility that “can only be described as sustained negligence,” said Mandy Olsgard, a Canadian toxicologist who reviewed EPA reports obtained as part of an investigation by The Associated Press and the Gecko Project.
The reports also reveal the Liberian government’s failure to hold the company accountable. The government holds a 5% stake in the mining operations. Under Liberian law, the state can suspend or terminate licenses if a minor fails to fulfill their obligations. But weak enforcement is common, with the World Bank citing limited government capacity.
In response to the investigation, recently dismissed Mines Minister Wilmot Paye said he was “appalled by the harm caused to our country” and said the government was reviewing all concession agreements. The outspoken minister was fired in October.
Gold mined from Bea Mountain is sold to Swiss refiner MKS PAMP, which is part of the supply chains of some of the world’s largest companies, including Nvidia and Apple. The investigation could not confirm which companies ultimately used the gold.
MKS PAMP said it commissioned an independent assessment of the New Liberty Mine, the largest of five mines operated by Bea Mountain in Liberia, in early 2025, and said it found no reason to sever ties but identified areas for improvement related to health and safety. A follow-up visit is planned for 2026.
MKS PAMP declined to share the findings of the assessment, citing confidentiality. He said it would end the relationship if Bea Mountain didn’t improve.
Between July 2021 and December 2022, the most recent period for which figures could be obtained, Bea Mountain exported more than $576 million worth of gold from Liberia. It contributed $37.8 million to government coffers during that time.
Bea Mountain is controlled by Murathan Günal through Avesoro Resources. Murathan is the son of Turkish billionaire Mehmet Nazif Günal, whose business interests include the Mapa Group. Avesoro Resources and Mapa Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Extracting gold from ore often involves cyanide, a chemical that, at high levels, can cause serious neurological damage and can be fatal if ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Cyanide must be treated before entering and exiting a tailings dam, a storage site for mining waste.
Other toxic substances, including arsenic, often found in gold mines, also pose serious health risks if not properly controlled.
The Günals took over Bea Mountain in 2016, acquiring it from Aureus Mining, a UK-listed gold producer, after years of warnings.
In 2012, Canadian consultancy Golder Associates discovered a risk of contamination of local rivers from the New Liberty Mine tailings dam and warned that seepage would violate Liberia’s drinking water standards. Two years later, the Digby Wells consultancy flagged cyanide and arsenic as major risks and suggested measures to prevent contamination.
In 2015, a year before production began, a third consultancy, SRK, warned that arsenic could exceed World Health Organization standards for drinking water if not properly managed.
Before production began, the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, paid $19.2 million for an equity stake in Bea Mountain’s parent company to develop the New Liberty mine. But the U.S. representative on the IFC board abstained, warning in a 2014 letter that the project lacked basic safeguards and raising concerns about the tailings dam and environmental assessment shortcomings.
It was unclear whether IFC still held a stake, and it did not respond to questions.
Bea Mountain was committed to following strict water management rules and adopting the Cyanide Management Code, a global standard recommending pollution limits and requiring independent audits.
The first spill documented by the EPA occurred during the first month of full production. In March 2016, just before the Günals purchased Bea Mountain, cyanide and arsenic leaked from the New Liberty mine. Dead fish floated downstream. Residents have reported skin rashes.
The company suspended operations but publicly downplayed the spill, saying “there has been no negative impact on human settlements.”
It was the first of four instances confirmed by the EPA at the mine in which Bea Mountain exceeded government pollution limits.
In June 2020, EPA inspectors discovered that Bea Mountain was operating an unapproved wastewater treatment system and detected water contaminated with high levels of copper and iron. When inspectors attempted to review the company’s water testing data, Bea Mountain refused.
“Physical access to the laboratory was also not approved,” the EPA said in a report.
That month, Bea Mountain withdrew from the Cyanide Management Code without ever being audited, said Eric Schwamberger, a senior official at the International Cyanide Management Institute which oversees the code. He called such withdrawals rare.
In May 2022, dead fish drifted along the Marvoe Creek, which passes the village of Jikandor and flows into the Mafa River which flows into the Atlantic. The EPA reported that a spill from the Bea Mountain tailings dam suffocated fish “due to exposure to higher than permitted limits” of cyanide.
The company was aware of the pollution but did not notify the community and the EPA “until downstream communities began observing dead fish species,” the EPA report said. Businesses are required to report these spills within 72 hours.
More than 16 kilometers downstream, in the village of Wangekor, residents reported hauling in dead fish before any warning reached them. They believed the bounty was “a gift from God,” said Philip Zodua, a representative of communities along the river.
Six residents from villages downstream of the Bea Mountain mine claimed they and their families fell ill after eating fish from the river in June 2022.
A villager, Korto Tokpa, said she saw children collecting dead and dying fish. “They were all sick, vomiting, vomiting and going to the bathroom all night” after consuming them, she said.
However, no tests were carried out on the villagers. Independent environmental scientists and toxicology experts have said there is not enough evidence to identify pollution as the cause of the reported illnesses.
“Without proper testing and transparent data, the true risks cannot be understood and communities are left with all the uncertainty,” said Olsgard, the toxicologist. “It is the company’s responsibility to address these gaps urgently.”
When EPA inspectors arrived at the mine to test the water days after the spill, they found levels of arsenic and cyanide well above legal limits.
Schwamberger said the cyanide concentrations reported by the EPA, in the water flowing from the tailings dam, were more than 10 times the concentration “that would generally be considered lethal to fish.”
In February 2023, another spill occurred. The EPA documented “a huge amount of raw copper sulfate” leaking into the environment. Six of nine water samples exceeded legal limits for cyanide and copper.
An EPA official involved in the May 2022 investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the mine’s tailings dam was originally built too small, a design flaw that later caused it to overflow.
While EPA inspectors have repeatedly recommended fines after spills, only one penalty has been imposed by the regulator, a fine of $99,999 in 2018, which was later reduced to $25,000. We didn’t know why.
In a written response to questions from the AP and the Gecko Project, the EPA acknowledged three “pollution incidents” between 2016 and 2023 in which laboratory tests found “cyanide levels above permitted levels.” He also confirmed that the fish deaths were caused by cyanide, copper sulfate and arsenic leaking from the mine’s tailings dam. It is unclear why the EPA did not acknowledge the fourth spill.
The EPA said the spills it documented occurred before the agency’s current leadership took office in 2024. It said it ordered Bea Mountain to hire an EPA-certified consultant and strengthen the tailings dam, and that the measures were implemented. It was not specified when this happened.
“No entity is above the law,” the agency said.
Following a recommendation from the EPA, a legally binding agreement was reached in May 2025 for Bea Mountain to relocate and compensate the village of Jikandor, the closest community to the mine.
Bea Mountain is now exploring new gold reserves elsewhere in Liberia.
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Aviram reported from London.
