MONROVIA – AUGUST 25, 2025: The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), has taken a major step in the actualization of its decentralization program, which will now see the Ministry having a presence in counties across the Country to allow those interested in accessing services in the mining and mineral sector to smoothly handle transactions at the county level without traveling to the Ministry’s central Monrovia office.
Started on 19th August, 2025, the training exercise of all Ministry of Mines and Energy County Mine Officers, and Geologists, is intended to build their capacities to handle digital online application procedures for mining and mineral-related licenses. The Mining Cadastre Information Management Unit, which handles digital license activities of the Mines and Energy Ministry is leading facilitation of the exercise with supervision from the Office of the Deputy Minister for Operations in collaboration with the Assistant Minister for Exploration and the Assistant Minister for Mines.
The establishment of County Offices for the Ministry of Mines and Energy is one of the flagship programs and deliverables of the current administration headed by Minister Wilmot Paye and his senior management team.
The training of these County Office Staffers, which is being done in stages, is intended to strengthen their capacity in implementing the Ministry’s policies on mineral exploration, reconnaissance, prospecting, and mining within their respective areas of assignment.
The training Lead, Cooper V. Pency, Director of the Mining Cadastre Implementation Management Unit of the Ministry (MME), highlighted that the online application process will significantly reduce the cost of the acquisition of licenses, leading to increment in revenue, and improvement in monitoring and evaluation of mining operations by the Inspectorate Unit, Director Pency emphasized that county office staff will be serving as the “eyes and ears” of the Ministry at the local level, making their role indispensable to the effective governance of Liberia’s mineral resources.
In order to give the County Mine Officers, and Geologists more insights about the significance of the service delivery expected of them, the Assistant Minister for Mineral Exploration and Environmental Research, Oliver S. Gbegbe, stated that the Ministry is committed to equipping them with the knowledge required to get the job done appropriately, as well as providing them the needed working tools to ensure compliance, enhance transparency, and improve reporting on mineral-related activities across the country. Assistant Minister Gbegbe further noted that strengthening county-level operations is a vital component of Liberia’s broader strategy to promote responsible and sustainable mining practices.
Among key focus of the workshop is introduction and practical training on how to access and operate the Ministry’s application processing and license management platform, known as the Mining Cadastre Administration System (MCAS) as well as the Online Repository (portal.mme.gov.lr). The Online Repository is the external platform that gives the general public access to data from MCAS.
The workshop is featured series of technical presentations by facilitators with solid mining sector expertise selected from the Mining Cadastre Information Management Unit (MCIMU), the Bureau of Mines, the Liberian Geological Survey (LGS), Office of Precious Minerals (OPM), the Inspectorate Unit, and the Office of the Chief Mining Engineer.
The various presentations addressed specific aspects of the County Staffers’ roles and responsibilities ranging from geological mapping and mineral tracking to compliance monitoring and the enforcement of the Minerals and Mining Law of 2000, the Exploration Regulations, among others.
At the close of session on Thursday, August 21, 2025, a cross-section of the participants expressed gratitude to the Ministry (MME) for organizing the training and reaffirmed their commitment to effectively implement their duties as prescribed in their respective terms of reference.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy reiterates that such capacity enhancement initiatives remain a central part of its mandate to improve the mining and mineral sector of Liberia by equipping personnel of the Ministry to diligently serve the public interest and promote investors’ confidence.
MINISTRY OF MINES AND ENERGY PUBLIC RELATIONS