VAITOWN

also called Bomi Hills, city, western Liberia, West Africa. Located in the Bomi Hills former iron-mining district, it is associated with the Liberian Mining Company (LMC; a subsidiary of Republic Steel Corporation), which closed down mining operations in the late 1970s. The firm, first in Liberia to export iron ore, completed a 43-mile (69-kilometre) narrow-gauge railway to the port at Monrovia in 1951. Iron interests added 49 miles (79 km) to the railroad in 1961 to connect the Bomi Hills to the National Iron Ore Company's mine at Fono on the Mano River. In addition, LMC built a hospital, schools, housing, and an electric generating plant. A swamp cultivation project has increased local rice production. The city is the centre of a government-sponsored agricultural reforestation program and a surveying school. Pop. (1974) 3,421.