Ngovayang Iron Ore Mining Project: Environmental, social impact assessment begins today.

The weeklong assessment, which is in accordance with a press release from the Minister of the Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, Hele Pierre, will run from September 2 to 7, 2024.

The assessments, to take the form of town hall meetings, will be held in the councils of Lolodorf, Bipindi and Kribi I.

It will be held in the chiefdoms of the villages bordering the mine. 

The public hearings will begin today at the palace of Melombo village, in the Bipindi Subdivision, Océan Division of the South Region. 

The assessment meetings will be an opportunity for various stakeholders the analyse the reports on the detailed environmental and social impact study of the project, produced by the project promoter, CAMINA S.A, a subsidiary of the Indian steel company, Jindal Steel and Power Limited.

The company was granted the Ngovayang iron ore exploration permit by the government since 2010 and extended to 2022. 

According to officials, if the study is validated by the local population, CAMINA S.A will be issued an environmental compliance certificate. 

The certificate, we further gathered, will enable it to complete its application for a mining permit, in order to request the signature of a mining agreement with the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, with a view to the award of a mining permit by a decree of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya. 

During a field visit by the Interim Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, Prof Fuh Calistus, he disclosed that the Ngovayang deposit has an initial iron ore reserve of 300 million tonnes with a possibility of it increasing as exploration studies are soon to be completed. 

He said the project is the next major project government has earmarked to commence effectively after that of Kribi-Lobe, Mbalam, Bipindi-Grand-Zambi and the Colomine gold mining, which all kick-started in 2023. 

He said the project will be peculiar from the other projects in terms of the means of transportation of the concentrated iron ore from the enrichment plant to the Kribi port. 

The CEO of CAMINA S.A had said the project will create jobs amongst other benefits for Cameroon and Cameroonians.

With a foreign direct investment of $800 million (over 483 billion 282 million FCFA) by the company, the CEO indicated that 2,000 direct jobs will be created during construction while 1,000 direct jobs will be created during the operational phase of the project. 

Also, an estimated 20,000 indirect jobs are expected to be created during ongoing operations. 

Besides the fiscal receipts, royalties and taxes, the boss of CAMINA S.A had said several social economic projects will be carried out for the interest of the communities in and around the project area.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3217 of Monday September 02, 2024