Exploration works are currently going on in Mongmamel, some 60 kilometres from Kribi towards Campo in Cameroon, to determine the amount of iron ore and its richness for imminent exploitation. A Chinese firm, "SINOSTEEL" under its programme, "China NCEII Iron Ore Exploration Project Management", is currently digging and extracting samples of the mineral for studies.
The President, General Manager of SINOSTEEL, Tianwen Huang, went visiting the site Wednesday November 4, 2009. Though he declined disclosing to the press the purpose of his visit to Cameroon and to the site, officials of the company who opted for anonymity said the visit was to appraise work on the project. Workers on the site told CT that they have been working there for over six months and that their work consists in detecting and extracting the mineral. They disclosed that already extracted quantity is packaged and sent abroad for proper study.
The Director of Mines and Geology in the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Technological Development, Oscar Matip, who accompanied the SINOSTEEL officials to the sites said the Chinese firm wants to confirm earlier diagnoses of the presence of minerals on the sites. Earlier studies, he said, showed that some 350 million tons of reserves were there and that the sampling work the Chinese firm is undertaking could also improve on earlier findings. He disclosed that the ongoing certification work on the site will permit them to determine how much of the mineral is there. "This will be followed by an evaluation of the quantity of the reserve and then exploitation", Mr. Matip said, adding that it is only then that an exploitation contract could be signed between the extracting firm and the government of Cameroon.
Over 1,800 metres of the sampling works have already been executed and officials of the Ministry said, government, through control teams from the Ministry as well as the South Regional Delegation of Industries, Mines and Technological Development, ensures the control of the project.
SINOSTEEL Corporation is a central enterprise under the administration of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. It is mainly engaged in developing and processing of metallurgical mineral resources, trading and logistics of metallurgical raw materials and products, and related engineering technical service and equipment manufacture.
Source: AllAfrica.com
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