According to a study evaluating the sustainable management of mineral resources in Cameroon, commissioned by the African Minerals Development Centre of the African Union and funded by the European Union Technical Assistance Facility (EU-TAF) as well as instruments of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Geological and Mineral Information System, covering the period from 1929 to the present, has some shortcomings.
In addition to data considered mostly outdated, the evaluation mentioned above highlights that the lack of funding is an obstacle to carrying out geological mapping. There is also “insufficient standardization of data that are not consistently shared according to uniform technical standards”. This situation impacts the reliability and accessibility of the data, which also suffer from “the lack of an integrated strategy for the collection and management of this information”.
Furthermore, the African Minerals Development Centre of the African Union emphasizes in its study that “the identified shortcomings result in a lack of transparency in the allocation of licenses and disclosure of contracts, affecting Cameroon’s statistics in the mining sector”. The same study reveals that “the mining sector contributes to approximately 0.63% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and represents about 5% of exports. Its contribution to the national budget is less than 0.2% in a context where the mining royalty rate is capped at 25%, while artisanal gold mining represents 95% of the country’s total gold production”.
The same study revealed “a weak institutional and legal framework, a tax regime lacking transparency, the absence of a value chain, as well as a lack of budget dedicated to environmental monitoring”. According to this study, the identified shortcomings impact transparency in the granting of licenses and disclosure of contracts, leading to disparities in revenue collection, environmental degradation linked to inadequate control and enforcement of rules, as well as high informality and low traceability in artisanal and small-scale mining operations.
As a reminder, according to data from the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, the State has issued 122 industrial mining permits, compared to over 1,000 permits for artisanal and small-scale operations. According to the recent report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative of Cameroon (EITI), in 2023, the National Mining Company (Sonamines) transferred a volume of 170.9 kg of gold to the Ministry of Finance. This represents a contribution of 5 billion CFA francs (8.7 million USD) under the synthetic mining tax. The same sources indicate that “during the year 2023 and the first half of 2024, Sonamines transferred a total of 420 kg of gold, equivalent to 12.35 billion CFA francs (21.4 million USD)”.
