Geovic Mining Corp abandons Nkamouna project

After eleven years of operation since 11th April 2003, the first mining license of Cameroon, Geovic Cameroon, subsidiary of the junior Americo-Canadain Geovic Mining Corp has abandoned its mining project. This company is noted for mining bauxite, cobalt and manganese in Nkamouna, in the Lomié district, in the East of Cameroon.

According to sources, the premises housing the company's headquarters at Bastos in Yaounde has been sold. At Nkamouna, an employee of Geovic Cameroon contacted by Ecofin agency indicated that "Geovic has been on stand-by for about a year now. He stated that they have even started to sell the vehicles stationed at the base in Kongo.

This information was confirmed by the former Mayor of Lomié, Célestin Assama Mbongo, who explained saying, "operations have been off for a year. The staff (approximately 200 employees) are on leave except for the guards who are still on the site. This has been a big blow to staff because we had high hopes in this project."

According to the former municipal executive of the municipality of Lomié, Geovic Cameroon had reached an agreement with Chinese investors which involved divesting its assets in this project. "Between February and April 2014, these Chinese came here several times, accompanied by some authorities of Geovic. They took some samples but to date nothing has been done.

We remember that on July 23, 2013, Geovic Mining Corp had announced that it had signed a "definitive agreement" with the Chinese group Jiangxi Rare Metals Tungsten Group Holdings Company Ltd. (JXTC). Reports revealed that the Americo-Canadian mining junior had decided to transfer all of its assets on the development and exploitation project of the deposits of cobalt, nickel and manganese from Nkamouna.

"This final agreement represented a significant progress for the operation of the project in Nkamouna." The development of the project will start as soon as funds are available and will allow the creation of jobs and diversify the economy of Cameroon", declared the CEO of Geovic Mining Corp, Michael Mason.

According to our sources, what had been presented as "a definitive agreement" in July 2013 has finally been filed by the parties.

Nkamoun mine project was estimated at $ US 615 million, approximately 306 billion Cfa francs. Reservations have been made for about 121 million tonnes of mineral resources with the average of 0.23% for cobalt, 0.65% for nickel and 1.35% for manganese. And after the feasibility studies in 2011, this project should generate 800 jobs directly and about 400 indirect jobs.