Experts say the diverse setbacks in the mining sector when eliminated could boom the currently ailing economy.
The second Cameroon International Mining Conference and Exhibition, CIMEC, pulled crowds at the Yaounde Conference Centre with investors seeking to grasp opportunities, government showcasing the country’s potential and students getting abreast with the sector’s realities.
The three-day international fair ends today May 29, 2015. Cameroon, experts say, that Africa’s miniature with its huge mineral reserves is yet to blossom, due to a number of setbacks.
Infrastructure Mining is a very peculiar sector where certain prerequisites must be put in place for it to be properly and effectively done. Mining cannot effectively take off when the necessary infrastructure is not available. Barrister Nico Halle, speaker at CIMEC, observed that mining is peculiar and rely heavily on infrastructure.
The sector requires as precondition; roads, railway and maritime transport infrastructure. Currently, actors are involved in artisan mining.
Consequently, “there are no roads with the people on the mining fields only interested in carting away their harvest.”
However, the Small Scale Mining Support and Promotion Framework Unit, CAPAM, of the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, MINMIDT, is working out a project on road development that is expected to change the face of mineral-rich communities.
Yvonne Nunga, an environmentalist in rehabilitating mining sites, says a photograph of the mining fields is disheartening with dug out and abandoned holes everywhere.
“The land is not even beautiful. The sites are degraded,” she said regrettably. “We advise exploiters to at least fill the soils after digging out their gold. We want to avoid the situation whereby cattle rearers, farmers and artisan miners will be at loggerheads because of land issues,” she pleaded.
Mining Code The 2001 Mining Code which was revised in 2010 is investment-friendly but needs to be relaxed. Nico Halle, says “it is packed with procedures that discourage investors.”
However, the Investment Promotion Agency is doing a lot to relax the cut down on some terms some investors have had to go through, he noted, while hinting that incentives put in place are inviting.
Smuggling The new tax system propounded by the Mining Code only helps to favour the smuggling of mineral deposits out of the country. The Mining Code in the case of Gold has targeted 15 per cent for the State as fallouts.
The addition of a 12 per cent ad-valorem tax to the 15 per cent has pushed miners to prefer smugglers, who pay higher than CAPAM, making things difficult, explained Yvonne Nunga.
In effect, dealers in the field outsmart CAPAM, to buy directly from artisans at higher prices and smuggle it out to countries such as the Central African Republic, Chad and Nigeria.
