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Beleaguered Bélinga

Gabon’s huge iron mine project due to begin production in 2011 has been delayed again by the new government’s plans to renegotiate terms

When Gabon’s President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba was alive, his ministers had nothing but praise for the nearly US$4 billion Bélinga iron ore mine and associated logistics projects, described by the President as ‘the project of the century’. Now that Bongo’s son, former Defence Minister El Hadj Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba, has replaced him at the presidential palace, the government (largely made up of the same Parti Démocratique Gabonais cadres as before) and the chattering classes only have bad things to say about the deal....

(This article contains approximately 1151 words)

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