(Business in Cameroon) - According to the Permanent Secretariat of the Kimberly Process, the production of rough diamond in Cameroon was around 6,000 carats during 2015. This production doubles the one of 2014, a year when it peaked at 3,000 carats, according to the same source.

If producers and exporters were able to profit from the actual value of these precious stones on the world market, the Cameroonian Treasury, according to the local representation of the Permanent Secretariat of the Kimberly Process, was only able to earn FCfa 73.4 million in various taxes.

Compared to Central African countries such as the Central African Republic or DR Congo, Cameroon remains a small diamond producer. But, the country has an enormous potential, thanks to the Mobilong deposit discovered in Eastern Cameroon by the company C&K Mining.

Even though the potential of this deposit has been disputed since 2010, several mining experts agree to acknowledge that Mobilong holds one of the most important diamond deposits in the world. In order to put an end to the controversy around the potential of this deposit, the Cameroonian Minister of Mines, Ernest Gwaboubou, recently announced the launch of reassessment operations.

Indeed, since 2010, C&K Mining, who has since end 2014 sold its shares in the Mobilong project to a Chinese-American investor, is accused of having over-estimated the potential of the diamond deposit (736 million carats at first, corresponding to 5 times the overall world production), then presented as the most important in the world.

It was finally revealed that this overestimate was only made to satisfy speculation motives (after the announcement, the C&K Mining stock soared on the Seoul stock market, multiplied by 4.6 in only 16 days), as a second assessment by the same explorer brought the potential of theMobilong diamond deposit back down to 420 million carats, even though the conglomerate part has not been really assessed yet.

Brice R. Mbodiam