Rich sub soils up for the grabs

Many people just cannot understand why Cameroon, with such varying mineral wealth is still lingering in poverty…

Many have called our country beautiful names in the likes of Africa in miniature, Africa in one etc. and lately another one has come on. They refer to Cameroon as a geological scandal! Our country has all the five agro-ecological zones of Africa from the mangroves around the sea front into the thick equatorial forests, then up to the forest-savannah mosaic zones and further into Sahelian and desert zones.

The same is being said of its sub soils. Aluminium, cobalt, iron, manganese, gold, nickel are some of the minerals said to be found in abundant quantities in our sub soils and which are only waiting for exploitation. The figures are in the superlative. Take iron.

In the past few years, talk has been about the Mbalam iron ore reserves. Reserves here are said to be about 220 million tonnes of rich minerals with about 60 percent of iron. Then there is the Nkamouna area with its known reserves in cobalt, nickel and manganese which are said to be among the biggest in the world.

The Bauxite projects of Minim-Martap and Fong-Tongo have been in the drawing boards for a bit too long and their huge quantities, considered to be over one billion tones, do not seem to impress anybody yet. That is not even all about discovered reserves because there is Gold at Betare-Oya and Diamonds at Mobilong, all in the east Region where a lot of artisanal mining is currently going on, thus telling of the urgent need to get investors in the area so that the State and the local people can draw benefits from these God-given riches.

This situation does not benefit anyone because the disorder observed in artisanal mining is such that no viable statistics exist as to whet quantities are actually exploited and sold because all is done informally and generally unknown to the public authorities. What is certain however, as seen from the vast numbers of youths attracted to the activity, is that in spite of the difficulties, the activity is worth carrying out.

If well organized therefore, the sector could help provide jobs and consequently improve the living conditions of all those involved in its activity. Government ought to show more resolve in artisanal mining. For instance, the instauration of mechanical mining of gold has produced the most unexpected results as government has been able, in the first half of 2015 to raise revenue by recovering gold ingots for a value of nearly two billion FCFA for government coffers with a projection of about 2.2 billion FCFA for the rest of 2015.

One cannot undermine the life-changing effects the proper management of the nation’s mines can bring along. Take the Mbalam iron ore project. The project involves the construction of a 580-kilometer railway link between the production nerve centre at Nabeba and Kribi to ferry the mineral to the Kribi port where a mineral terminal is also supposed to be constructed. These are projects that cannot fail to whet the appetites of potential investors.

The same can be said of all the other major minerals which are all there only waiting for exploitation. Government has lately come up with a mineral code which is attractive enough for investors to take possession of the wide incentives that exist so that this huge potential can be exploited by those willing to invest so that the local populations can also benefit along the line in a synergy that provides a win-win configuration for all.