Minister of Mines announces new mining sites to boost sector
Due to poor financing and the lack of reliable partners to exploit the major deposits of iron, diamonds, bauxite, and cobalt in the country, mining revenues remain weak and represent less than 1% of the country’s GDP.
According to reports, nearly 90% of the production of minerals such as gold is sold through informal channels. Lack of transport capacities has been holding back the mining sector including some environmental problems such as land degradation especially in Batouri, water pollution, air pollution, deforestation , and abandoned mining pits.
The Minister of mines, Gabriel Dodo Ndoké has revealed that the national mining company – Sonamines has collected a total of 175 kg of gold for a total value of FCFA3.2 billion since the beginning of the year 2022.
According to him, these figures “indicate an increase in the contribution of the mining sector to state revenue”.
The minister says that to remedy this situation, Sonamines is working on a strategy to better channel and market gold and diamonds and is committed to getting gold out of informal marketing channels.
Sonamines claimed it collected 43.46 kg of gold from artisanal miners between July 17 and November 30, 2021. This is 93% higher than the volume collected over the same period in 2020 and 138.9% higher than that in 2019.
Minister Dodo Ndoke announced that the government is working to start the industrial exploitation of gold and diamonds to further increase the sector’s weight in the national economy. This project will begin with the start of a large-scale gold mining in Colomine (Ngoura), in the eastern part of the country.
Sonamines was created in December 2020 with the mission to carry out the purchase and marketing of mineral substances as well as their exploration and exploitation. The known gold reserves in Cameroon cover an area of 20,000 km2, mainly in the eastern region where mining is largely artisanal and semi-industrial.
