BUTAW EXPANSION AREA
Butaw Plantation – Location and Access
The Butaw Plantation is located 350 km from Monrovia in Sinoe County. The road quality and access times are as follows:
- Monrovia to Buchanan is 130 km, and takes approximately 2 hours drive on a sealed road which has good all weather access.
- Buchanan to Greenville is 200 km, and takes approximately 8 hours drive on a deteriorated road which has moderate access.
- Greenville to Butaw is 20km and approximately 1 hourdrive on a road which requires improvement and is currently limited to small vehicles.4
- The road leg from Greenville to the Butaw Plantation requires immediate civil works on log bridges, culverts and surface works to enable heavy machinery and four wheel drive access into the plantation.5 An initial engineering survey has been undertaken and the construction and repairing of this infrastructure is expected to commence shortly after completion of the Placing, and is expected to be completed by early 2009.
- Sea Freight access to the Butaw Plantation through the Port of Greenville will be an important alternative to the Monrovia Greenville road especially during the wet season when road access will be more difficult. There are a number of small charter companies who currently provide sea freight services from Monrovia, delivering to the Ports of Buchanan, Greenville and Harper. The current condition of the Port of Greenville is such that only small vessels can be utilised in the short term and it is not expected to be used to deliver the mill intended for the Butaw Plantation, which the Company anticipates will be transported by road from Monrovia.
The following is a map of the Butaw Plantation and surrounding area:
The Company is again working with a local surveying firm, Earthcons, to survey and accurately map the Butaw Plantation. Under the terms of the Butaw Investment Agreement, once finally surveyed, the plantation maps of the Butaw Plantation will form an annexe to the Butaw Investment Agreement.