 In 1954, the Compagnie Minière de l'Ogooué (COMILOG), a French-American company formed the previous year, decided to begin mining manganese in the Gabonese town of Moanda.The town lay deep in the rainforest, and export 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.