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Governor Lele Lafrique sets the record straight: Mballam is not in the South Province
28/06/2008: After covering 56km from Ngoyla by car, East Governor, Lele Afrique Adolph trudged through the 14 km distance to Mballam on marshy path way to Mballam 2 where huge iron ore deposits were discovered.
The discovery was made between 1973 and 1978 by the United Nations Development Programme in partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency.

The Governor was there to measure the extent to which Sundance Resources Lt., the Australian mining concern that won the contract to mine the ore has gone with the mining project.

Beyond this concern was the need for the Governor to end the controversy surrounding the ownership of Mballam iron area.

The South Province has been claiming ownership of Mballam 2 since it was announced that iron would be mined there.

The controversy began in 1967 with the creation of the District of Ngoyla to which Mballam 2 belongs.

No development projects were carried out there and so no road linked the district of Ngoyla and Mballam.

During the anti-state rebellion led by Wounly Massaga in the region, the Government of Cameroon in 1973 , send a military detachment to quell the rebellion.

The detachment was drawn from the South Province given that there was no access from Ngoyla in the Upper Nyong Division to Mballam, on the contrary there was a path way linking Mballam and Djoum in the South.

And so a military detachment from Djoum was dispatched from Djoum to Mballam to quell the rebellion.

Since then, there has been a historical relation between the South Province and Mballam.

With the news that iron mining would soon start off in Mballam there has been attempts to further strengthen this relation.
The chief of the Djoum Integrated Health District, André Amougou Awono became in charge of health coverage in Mballam despite the existence of an integrated health centre in Mballam2.

He reportedly made a proposal to reorganise the Djoum Health District in which all the villages of Mballam 2 Canton were to be an integral part.

The elite of Ngoyla saw this as an attempt by the South to colonise the mineral –rich area.

They protested to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Health, and petitioned the President of the republic back in 2005, arguing that “such a project is intended, by the population of the South, to lay claim to Mballam Iron”.

More fears were raised when the South Provincial Delegation of Basic Education sent a head master to the Mballam Government Primary School.

Faced with this controversy, Head of State commissioned Governor Lele Lafrique Adolph, to set the record straight.

”Mballam 2 is a village under Ngoyla District of the Upper Nyong Division”, the governor was categorical.

He however implore d the people of Mballam to live in peace with their brothers in the South Province arguing that proceeds from the iron ore project shall be beneficial to the entire nation.

The Governor invited the population to cultivate the soil to feed the close to 4000 people expected to work in Mballam when the exploitation of the ore finally takes off.

The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development says some eight hundred million to one billion tons, of iron deposits are to be exploited in Mballam.

According to Badel Ndanga Ndinga, the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, 35million tons of iron can be exploited yearly in Mballam for 20 years.

The Mballam Iron development project involves the construction of a mine, a crushing and screening plant and stock piling facilities.

A 470 km railway line will be constructed from Mballam to the Atlantic Coast at Logbabe where a 20 m deep sea port will be developed to handle large ocean going vessels.

The first ship load of iron from Mballam is expected to leave the port by 2011.
The railway line is expected to open the way to remote South East Cameroon for other investors, and to encourage tourism in a region rich in diverse wildlife species.