Acting Minister of Mines, Fuh Calistus Gentry (photo), is scheduled to preside on 22 December 2023 on “the site of the Mbalam Iron Project”, the ceremony for the “launch of the construction of the mine” of this world-class iron deposit, which is closed between Cameroon and the Congo. The “program project” of this mission of Minister Calistus Gentry, signed on 19 December 2023 by his own care, does not indicate either the locality that will house this ceremony, nor the possible participation of the Congolese authorities. At most, after the "start of the construction of the mine", "exchanges with local authorities" are planned after the of mine" in Ntam, Cameroonian border town in the Congo, in the eastern region.
But, above all, the main curiosity of this ceremony planned by the Cameroonian Minister of Mines is that since 17 August 2022, the date of the granting of the permit to operate the Mbalam iron deposit to the Cameroon Mining Company Sarl (CMC), no information has so far been filtered, either on the financing or on the financial partners of this gigantic mining project. At most, we know from announcements made by AustSino, a partner of Bestway Finance (investment vehicle based in Singapore and having the same parent company as CMC) on the Mbalam mining project, that an aperoroist of Chinese companies has joined the project.
Occity
This situation adds to the shadow areas surrounding the Mbalam Iron Project since the failure of Australia’s Sundance Resources, the first developer of the project, to take it to the end. Indeed, many observers of the Cameroonian mining scene continue to question the fact that a company (CMC) created on 16 March 2022 was able to successively sign a mining agreement with the State of Cameroon two weeks later (31 March), then obtain a licence to operate just five months after its creation. All on a world-class iron deposit.
To these grey areas must be added the lack of transparency surrounding the award of this concession, as well as those of all the others under way in the country. Indeed, like all other mining titles active in Cameroon, CMC’s licence has not been made public so far, in violation of article 144 of the 2016 Mining Code (a completely new one has just been promulgated by the Head of State, NDLR). This article provides that “deeds which confer the allocation, extension, renewal, transfer, amodiation, withdrawal or waiver of an operating permit must be published in the Official Journal and in the newspapers of legal notices”.
As a reminder, the Mbalam iron deposit, which extends to Nabeba in Congo, is considered a world-class reserve. Sundance Resources Ltd, the first developer of the project, planned a two-phase deployment. In the first phase, it relied on an annual production of 40 million tons of directly charged ore over a 12-year period. And in the second to extend the exploitation of the deposit by more than 15 years, producing a high-grade hematite concentrate. But, to get to this point, global investments of more than 5 trillion CFA francs are needed. Both for the construction of the mine, a railway line of 510 km towards the port of Kribi, and a mineral terminal within the same port platform.
Brice R. Mbodiam
