(Business in Cameroon) - The Commission of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), Chaired by the Gabonese Daniel Ona Ondo (photo), issued a call for tenders last August 30 to recruit a consultancy firm to develop a common mining policy within the CEMAC area.

According to Daniel Ona Ondo, the strategy lays on the interest of having a legal and regulatory framework without large disparities between Member States as to attract direct foreign investments. Bids must be submitted in a sealed envelope to the Commission's provisional headquarters in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, or by e-mail no later than September 27 at 10 a.m.

The Commission pointed out that the subsoil in the sub-region is rich in mining resources such as manganese, iron, bauxite, cobalt, nickel, potash, uranium, gold, silver, diamond, copper, etc. Cameroon, for example, has the world’s 6^th largest bauxite reserve (still not exploited) and Gabon is the world's second-largest manganese producer with 30% of the world's reserves. The commission said the resources are not sufficiently exploited (under-exploited) and mainly exported as unprocessed raw materials.

S.A