New dawn for Cameroon gold!.

Before the briefings, several international reports including that of Green Peace, pointed out in mid-June this year that: “Between 2021 and 2025, an estimated 44,000 kilogrammes (44 tons) of gold left Cameroon for Dubai, while Cameroon customs declared only 148 kilogrammes for export”.

“The value of this gold is estimated at nearly 2,000 billion FCFA, equivalent to the annual budget of the Ministry of Public Health for five consecutive years,” Green Peace said. 

It credited the source of the data to Serge Hervé Boyogueno, the Director General of Cameroon Mining Corporation, known by its French acronym, SONAMINES, also confirmed by a report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI. 

Green Peace added that Cameroon Customs declared 22 kilogrammes of gold exported, while the UN Comtrade international database registered 15,194 kilogrammes of gold originating from Cameroon, exported mainly to the United Arab Emirates.

Beyond domestic mining scandals, there have been reports of several individuals “operating in international fake gold syndicates — some linked to massive financial frauds in East Africa and the Philippines — have been traced back to Cameroonian rings”. 

During a visit to Bertoua last month, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, announced that President Paul Biya had ordered investigations into the alleged irregularities affecting the gold sector.

At a meeting which was attended by administrative authorities, security officials, mining regulators, and industry representatives, participants described a sector facing serious governance challenges, irregular permits, influence-peddling, and repeated violations of mining regulations. 

Apart from illegal extraction and export, Minister Atanga Nji was told of irregularities such as uncontrolled land occupation, the misuse of permits, deforestation, water pollution, and the abandonment of open pits after mining activities ended.

He was told such criminal practices have turned some mining communities into high-risk areas as unrehabilitated pits increase the danger of landslides, drownings, and other accidents, particularly during the rainy season. They also threaten farmland and water resources that local communities rely on.

To assess the problem firsthand, Minister Atanga Nji conducted an unannounced visit on June 2 to the Gounté gold mining site in Mandjou, located in the Lom and Djérem Division and insisted that operators do so within the law.

His recommendation just reinforced the actions of the Interim Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, who, with the Minister of Communication, on Wednesday briefed reporters on the new face of the mining sector.

Prof.  Fuh explained that the restructuring of the gold sector underlined the important and rigorous framework of the new Mining Code, structured around five technical and environmental obligations

First, the payment of a mandatory environmental protection guarantee set at 63,000,000 FCFA per site. Secondly the strict adherence to legal provisions requiring that at least 51% of the share capital of companies applying for a semi-mechanised mining permit be held by a Cameroonian. Thirdly, fixed rates of 25% for the simplified mining tax, 5% for export duties, and 1% for mining policy implementation funds.Fourthly, mandatory production threshold of 5 kg per month for sites with 15 tanks, 7 kg per month for 20 tanks, and 10 kg per month for 30 tanks. Lastly, all operators are required to migrate, within six months, to the closed-tank mineralised gravel treatment system.

It is a new dawn beyond the gold sector or to use the theme of the press conference “the New Face of the Cameroonian Mining Sector with the Launch of Major Projects and the Restructuring of the Gold Sector," with the commissioning of five major projects: Bipindi Grand-Zambi iron ore mining; Kribi-Lobé iron ore, Minim-Martap industrial bauxite mining in Adamawa Region; Bidzar marble industrial mining and Colomine gold mining project.

As Prof Fuh Calistus said at the press briefing, the National Mining Corporation, SONAMINES, will be responsible for enhanced monitoring of gold production and marketing from artisanal and semi-mechanised mining, so as to strengthen transparency, combat losses in public revenue, and better regulate a sector that is strategic for the Cameroonian economy.

There is no doubt that the government is giving consideration to the economic benefits, but the safely of the population, environment, farmland and water sources should also be a priority.

While The Guardian Post congratulates President Paul Biya for ordering an investigation that has led to Prof Fuh initiating the reforms, his ministry, as supervisory authority of SONAMINES, must ensure that the corporation lives to the billings without the temptation to cower to corruption that had been prevalent in the mining sector for years.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3848 of Wednesday July 15, 2026