(Business in Cameroon) - Tomorrow, March 17, 2021, CAMALCO will meet with Cameroonian economic operators at the premises of the Inter-Patronal Grouping of Cameroon (GICAM), in Douala.

CAMALCO explains that the aim is to let the newly appointed CEO, Rick Smith, meet with potential partners for the development of the Makan, Minim-Martap, and Ngaoundal bauxite plateaux covered by the permits.

The partners targeted for the meeting are those operating in the land and rail transport, logistics, port, construction, hydrocarbons, telecommunications, cement producing, steel milling as well as heavy machinery and equipment dealing sectors.  

CAMALCO adds that with this meeting, it is pursuing four main objectives. The first is to develop an important part of its local content by involving local companies in this important project, which is new in the Cameroonian industrial sector. The second objective is to provide tips to local firms that are planning to team up or form joint-ventures with foreign partners to support CAMALCO S.A in the project. The third main objective is to identify and network with firms whose experience in the local market can be beneficial for the successful implementation of CAMALCO’s project. The last objective is to describe its local content policy, which is key to the success of such a project.

Let’s note that CAMALCO is a subsidiary of Australian junior mining company Canyon Resources that has three licenses on the bauxite deposits of Minim-Martap, Ngaoundal, and Makan in Adamaoua.

The company estimates that the Minim-Martap and Ngaoundal deposit could make Cameroon the world's largest bauxite reserve.  The latest analyses carried out by the company on 16 of the 79 bauxite plateaux identified raised the potential of this bauxite deposit to 892 million tons, including 250 million tons of "very high grade" mineral ideal for the production of aluminum.

According to James Durrant (photo), the project manager for the Minim-Martap and Ngaoundal bauxite exploration project at Canyon Resources, an analysis of the remaining 63 plateaux will raise the deposit's potential to about 2 billion tons of bauxite. This would “probably” make them “the largest deposits in the world, both in quantity and quality,” he said.

Based on the new results obtained, Canyon Resources and its subsidiary Camalco are already planning to start mining the bauxite in 2022.

BRM