Australian Canyon Resources to conquer bauxite deposits at Minim-Martap and Ngaoundal, Cameroon
(Agence Ecofin) - The Cameroonian Minister of Mines, Ernest Gwaboubou (photo), proceeds on 17 September 2018, in the locality of Minim-Martap, in the region of Adamaoua, to launch the " last phase of research ", before the development of the bauxite deposits of Minim-Martap and Ngaoundal, we learn officially.
This exploration work will be conducted by Camalco, a Cameroonian subsidiary of Australian junior miner Cayon Resources, to which the Cameroonian government issued three exploration licenses on July 11, 2018.
The granting of these licenses to Canyon Resources thus puts an end to the Cameroon Alumina (CAL) episode on the project to exploit the first bauxite deposit in Cameroon; this company, the result of a joint venture between the American Hydromine, Emirati Dubal Alumina and Indian Hindalco, could not conclude a mining convention with the Cameroonian State, after several years of negotiations.
Concretely, we learn from good sources, the setting aside of CAL on this project is the consequence of the " blocking of the negotiations ", which results from the non-provision by CAL of all the definitive preliminary studies on all project components (bauxite-alumina), with an integrated financial model, on the one hand, and Dubal Alumina's reluctance to continue investing in the project, on the other hand ". All things that led the State of Cameroon to donate to the national mining sector, since April 2016, the permits formerly held by CAL.
By taking over the licenses on the Ngaoundal and Minim-Martap bauxite deposits, after a little more than 2 years of negotiations with the Cameroonian authorities, the Australian Canyon Resources has committed, says a source familiar with the matter, to mobilize more than 6 billion CFA francs, in order to fulfill a set of specifications that extends over a period of 3 years non-renewable.
As a reminder, according to official estimates, the bauxite deposits of Minim-Martap and Ngaoundal have an estimated provisional potential of 554 million tonnes, far ahead of the 50 million tonnes of the Fongo Tongo deposit in the region of West of the country.
The potential of two deposits, we learn, made Cameroon the 2 nd ground bauxite in Africa, behind Guinea Conakry.
Brice R. Mbodiam
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