(Business in Cameroon) - The Australian junior mining company Sundance Resources, which is operating the Mbalam iron project in Cameroon through its subsidiary Cam Iron, announced on 18 January 2016 that it will carry out an 80% cost-cutting plan on this project. This announcement comes only a few days after the postponement of the signing of a contract for the construction of the infrastructure (railway and iron terminal of the Kribi port) linked to this project, between the Cameroonian government and the company China Ghezouba.

The decrease in expenditure announced by Sundance Resources, we learn, will lead starting from 1st February 2016, to staff cuts on this project, in order to maintain a team of only 10 employees. The new workforce will be thus split: 2 employees at the headquarters of the company in Perth, Australia and 8 employees in Cameroon and Congo, where 2/3 of the Mbalam-Nabeba iron deposit is located.

On the ground in Cameroon, we learned from reliable sources that, the staff number of Cam Iron in the Eastern region has already been downsized from around 80 employees a few months ago to 6 employees currently, thus staff cuts of more than 90%. The activities on-site, according to our sources, are now limited to monitoring and maintaining the equipment and iron samples collected.

BRM