Cameroon witnesses a significant decline in mining revenues in 2014

Cameroon has mining revenues of 486 million CFA FRANCS since the beginning of the year for the targets of 1.25 billion FCFA in 2014, learns APA from the Ministry of Mines, industry and technological development.

It is so evident that the projections for the country in this domain will not be met, for a sector with main limiting factors ranging from insecurity to the massive fraud by corruption, legal provisions permissive and which, for now, are limited to a declarative plan.

Confined to a small-scale mining, the profitability of gold, for example, is victim of the lack of information about the geological data of the basement.

At the end of February, authorities confessed that the quantity of gold in Cameroon was indeed largely "below the real potential.

For the authorities, it is first and foremost to question to intensify control strategies of mining activity, mainly the exploitation of gold that in the eastern region which houses officially 30 mining companies, is extracted in a context of total mess as well by local operators and foreign.

Similarly, in order to optimize revenue from gold activity, the Cameroonian Government had, last year, announced the establishment of the mechanized production sharing contract, insertion of production returning to State in formal sales channels, the creation of a company in charge of the defense of the interests of the country on solid mines and the strengthening of controls and monitoring of the gold mining and minerals.

Cameroon, whose gold production is estimated at approximately 100 tonnes per year of which 90% are circulating in informal channels, have, since the beginning of the current year, issued more than 2,000 new mining permissions.