The COMILOG Cableway was one of the longest cableways in the world, until its closure in 1986. The ropeway conveyor ran for 76 km from Moanda in the Haut-Ogooué Province of south eastern

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

to Mbinda in the Republic of Congo. In 1954, the Compagnie Minière de l'Ogooué (COMILOG), a French-American company formed the previous year, decided to begin

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

in the Gabonese town of Moanda. The town lay deep in the

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

, and

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

of the metal was a problem. The nearest reliable transport route was the Congo-Ocean Railway, but this lay more than 250km away, across difficult terrain. George Perrineau was charged with constructing a transport link between the two. It was decided to construct a cableway from Moanda to Mbinda, and then branch of the Congo-Ocean Railway to Mont Bello, from which the existing railway would link to the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

of Pointe-Noire.Ya Sanza
Dossiers spéciaux: COMILOG
pecial Dossier: COMILOG/ref> The conveyor was routed via the small town of Bakoumba, which became the centre for the maintenance of the structure. The mine opened in 1957, and the Cableway was opened in 1959, the link finally being completed when the Congo-Ocean Railway branch opened in 1962. The Cableway consisted of ten sections, and had 858 supports of between 5 and 74m in height.Seilbahnen
able cars/ref> One tonne cars carried the manganese twenty-four hours a day.Bakoumba et la SODEPAL
akoumba and SODEPAL/ref> The government of Gabon was keen to ship the valuable manganese ore through its own ports, and routed a new railway, the Transgabonais, from the national capital Libreville to Moanda, and on to Franceville. When this opened, in 1986, the cableway was closed. While Moanda continued to prosper, Bakoumba and Mbinda suffered from the withdrawal of their main industry. COMILOG funded the creation of the Lékédi Park at Bakoumba to encourage the development of a tourist industry, but some groups in Congo felt that unemployment there was not addressed.

References

External links

Map of Gabon showing the route of the COMILOG Cableway
{{coord missing, Republic of the Congo Transport in Gabon Transport buildings and structures in the Republic of the Congo Transport buildings and structures in Gabon Buildings and structures completed in 1959 1986 disestablishments in Gabon Transport in the Republic of the Congo Aerial tramways 1986 disestablishments in the Republic of the Congo 1959 establishments in French Equatorial Africa

See also

References

External links