FYIFer de Mbalam: Paul Biya refuses to pay 94 billion FCFA to...

FYI






Fer de Mbalam: Paul Biya refuses to pay 94 billion FCFA to Sundance and opts for arbitration
Monday, 16 May 2022 19:20



(Business in Cameroon) - Started in the second half of 2021, negotiations between Cameroon and Sundance Resources (and its local subsidiary Cam Iron SA), with a view to settling the dispute between them over the project exploitation of Mbalam iron, failed. This is what emerges from a set of official letters, of which we have obtained a copy.

Convinced of Yaoundé's desire to continue the development of the project with other partners, the Australian mining junior seized the International Court of Arbitration of the Paris International Chamber of Commerce in June 2021 in order to oblige the country to grant it an operating permit for this iron deposit, after the mining agreement of November 29, 2012 and the transition agreement of June 30, 2015.

To definitively put an end to the procedure initiated at the level of the French capital, Sundance asks the State of Cameroon to reimburse the expenses incurred during the research phase. Expenditure "estimated, subject to audit, at the sum of 94 billion FCFA", according to the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (Minmidt), whose services led the negotiations with the company Australian mining.

Confessions

The payment of this "debt" is considered by **riel Dodo Ndocké as an "evolution" to close this case. The latter also submits this "arrangement" to the sanction of the President of the Republic. But, Paul Biya (photo) decides to defend the interests of Cameroon before the arbitral tribunal of Paris, according to a letter from the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, dated April 18 and addressed to the Minmidt. The latter also chose, according to the same letter, to entrust the defense of the country to Thierry Lauriol, lawyer at the Paris bar, partner in the firm Jeantet. The latter is already Congo's lawyer, dragged by Sundance before the London arbitration court for having withdrawn the permit for the Congolese part of the same project.

The said lawyer, we learn, should have already filed the response of the State of Cameroon to the request for arbitration before the deadline of April 30, 2022. By separate letter, declares the SG-PR, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motazé, was instructed to make urgently available to the tax collector at the Cameroonian Embassy in Paris, the sum of 55,000 dollars (approximately 34.57 million FCFA) for the payment of the costs of the urgent procedure which ended on April 1, 2022, with a decision not favorable to Cameroon. The International Court of Arbitration in Paris has indeed issued an interim decision prohibiting Cameroon "from issuing an exploitation permit relating to the Mbalam iron ore deposit or from issuing any instrument or document having a similar effect, to Sonamines or to any other entity," Sundance said.

Slowness

In August 2021, Sundance Resources announced that it is relying on arbitration proceedings against Cameroon and Congo to pay debts owed to its shareholders in an estimated amount of $132 million [approximately 70.86 billion FCFA ], at the end of January 2021. In Congo, the Australian firm is claiming damages amounting to 8.76 billion US dollars, or more than 4,700 billion FCFA at the current value of the dollar.

Since 2015, after several extensions of its exploration license on the project, the Australian mining junior has not managed to secure a technical and financial partner for the installation of the infrastructures relating to the Mbalam project (construction of a more than 500 km between Mbalam and Kribi, from the mine and an ore terminal to the deep water port of Kribi). Successive attempts with the Chinese companies China Gezhouba, in 2015, Tidfore Heavy Equipment Group Ltd, in 2018, and finally AustSino, from 2018, have all been crowned with failure.

And on June 25, 2021 in Yaoundé, the State of Cameroon, through the Minister of Transport, Jean Ernest Ngallé Bibéhé, signs with the companies AutSino Resources Group Ltd and Bestway Finance Ltd, a memorandum of understanding (MoU), for the construction of the railway of more than 500 km linking Mbalam to the deep water port of Kribi. This prompted Sundance to drag AutSino before the Australian courts for breach of trust. Because Sundance believes that the Chinese company used the data it had provided to negotiate and obtain Mbalam's permit behind its back.


Sylvain Andzongo


Pre-translated source:
https://www-investiraucameroun-com.translate.goog/mines/1605-17913-fer-de-mbalam-paul-biya-refuse-de-payer-94-milliards-de-fcfa-a-sundance-et-choisit-l-arbitrage?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

The English version of this website is typically a day behind, but expect this article to appear there tomorrow;
https://www.businessincameroon.com/