Tubmanburg, also called Bomi Hills or Vaitown, city, western Liberia, western Africa. Located in the Bomi Hills, a former iron-mining district, it was long associated with the Liberian Mining Company (LMC; a subsidiary of Republic Steel Corporation), which closed down mining operations in the late 1970s. The firm, the first in Liberia to export iron ore, completed a 43-mile (69-km) 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. Much of that infrastructure was damaged or destroyed during the country’s periods of civil war. The city was later renamed Tubmanburg for former Liberian president William V.S. Tubman. Pop. (2008) 14,576.