Steel giant ArcelorMittal has participated in land grabs and likely contaminated water in Liberia as it mined iron ore deposits in the country's north, a report by French investigative outlet Disclose said Tuesday.
The steel giant is a major employer in the small west African country of nearly six million, which is poor despite having plentiful resources of iron ore, timber, diamonds and gold.
Hundreds of farmers have had their land grabbed by ArcelorMittal, Disclose alleged in the report, a document heavily refuted by the company.
Earlier this year Liberian government mediators counted 694 farmers who were waiting to be compensated for destruction or lack of access to their land, while another 160 farmers on the company's concession had not been taken into account by authorities, the publication said.
ArcelorMittal told AFP, however, that local community members had encroached upon concession lands by planting crops in the hope of securing compensation.
The company said that all "claims for compensation for use of privately owned land" had been addressed.
Disclose spoke to seven people who said their land had been grabbed, destroyed, blocked or degraded by ArcelorMittal between August 2024 and September 2025.
{{/usCountry}}Disclose spoke to seven people who said their land had been grabbed, destroyed, blocked or degraded by ArcelorMittal between August 2024 and September 2025.
{{/usCountry}}Dada Konkah, a farmer in Gbarpa, at the foothills of two mountains mined by ArcelorMittal, told the publication that in March 2022, excavators destroyed a large portion of his rubber, cacao and avocado crops while he was away.
He was eventually compensated $9,000 but had expected double the amount.
Two years later the steel giant built a dam which was supposed to retain water but did not work, flooding his fields with brown water.
ArcelorMittal told Konkah he would not be compensated for the destroyed crops, according to Disclose.
Affected farmers are demanding $4 million, or roughly $5,400 per person, Disclose said.
ArcelorMittal told Disclose that it "does not authorise land clearing activities outside of its established land access, consultation, compensation and permitting processes, and any allegation that these requirements were not followed is taken seriously and is subject to review".
- Lead and fluoride -
Disclose also detailed chemical contamination of water.
Heavy metals "were found in rivers, wells and pumps used by the residents of five villages located in the mining concession", the publication said, citing an independent laboratory report from January 2025 commissioned by the Liberian government.
Lead was found across all 37 samples taken, including up to 63 times the levels recommended by the World Health Organization.
And high levels of fluoride were found in 19 samples, it reported.
ArcelorMittal said however that "the presence of heavy metals in water samples does not, on its own, demonstrate a direct link to AML's operations".
Decimated by back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis, Liberia is one of the world's poorest countries.
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