Geology of Cameroon
 | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010) |
Despite being a mineral rich country, Cameroon has only recently begun to investigate mining on an industrial scale. Strong metal and industrial mineral prices since 2003 have encouraged companies to develop mines here. The terrain mainly consists of granite-rich ground with areas of ultramafic rocks that are sources of cobalt and nickel. There are also deposits of bauxite, gold, iron ore, nepheline syenite, and rutile. Alluvial gold is mainly mined by artisanal miners.
Cameroon has a total area of approximately 475 445 thousand square kilometers, a coastline of some 400 kilometers, and a population approaching 27 million people. [1]
Prior to 2008, Cameroon had no industrial mining history. Cameroon's undeveloped mineral resources include bauxite, cobalt, gold from lode deposits, granite, iron ore, nepheline syenite, nickel, and rutile. Strong metal and industrial mineral prices since 2003 have encouraged companies to develop mines. The Nkamouna enriched cobalt-nickel-manganese-iron laterite deposits and several other nickeliferous laterite deposits in southeast Cameroon were first discovered and investigated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) during 1981–1986, in a cooperative project with the Cameroon Ministry of Mines, Water and Energy to evaluate mineral potential in southeastern Cameroon. Due to the remote location and the low nickel prices at the time, the discovery did not draw much attention. No further exploration took place on the property until geologist William Buckovic became aware of the nickel discovery in 1988. [2]
The southeast region and nearby regions in Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic have few producing mineral deposits and few with near-term production potential. Most of this region is underlain by Proterozoic granite-gneiss-schist terrains. Within the region, ultramafic rocks, the original source of the cobalt and nickel, are confined to the project area. There has been no previous production of minerals from the project area.[ citation needed ]
Alluvial gold is artisanally exploited from stream gravels in parts of Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Central African Republic. However, the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2002 estimate for total gold production from all four countries combined is less than 1,600 kilograms, or less than 50,000 ounces per year. The portion of this yield from within a 300-km radius of the Geovic Project is likely on the order of 20,000 ounces per year, a relatively insignificant amount by international comparisons. In the southwest part of the Central African Republic, alluvial gold is accompanied by small quantities of alluvial diamonds in streams which drain Cretaceous sandstone and conglomerates exposed further east. The Cretaceous formations do not extend into Cameroon. [3]
| | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010) |
Law No 2016/017 of December 14, 2016 on Mining Code http://www.minmidt.cm/en/latest-news/295-law-2016-017-of-december-14th-2016-on-mining-code.html
| | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010) |
| | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010) |
As of April 2008, bauxite is not mined in Cameroon; it is only smelted. The raw material is shipped from around the world to a smelter in Edéa where a supply of hydro-electric power is available for processing. The smelted metal is exported globally.
In 2019 Camrail and Caynon Resources were working on exploiting rich Bauxite deposits at Minim to feed the smelter at Edéa and for export.
Limestone production in 2004 was 290,000 metric tons.
A Mining Permit was decreed in favor of GeoCam in 2003 that covers the entire cobalt mineral province in southeastern Cameroon, perhaps the largest primary cobalt resource in the world.
All buyers must obtain an authorization permit document Directly from the Ministry of Mines, Department of Mines and Geology. This will give the buyer the full rights to be able to purchase diamonds from Cameroon as well as in any CEMAC member states.
Gold yielded an estimated 20000 kg in 2004 and was produced by small-scale artisan miners, mostly in the eastern part of the country. The Cameroon Ministry of Mines has set up new procedures binding the sales of precious metals. She looks for many more investors via the use of these procedures. In situations whereby a new local mining is in a business transaction with a buyer who wants to invest in mining, the Ministry of Mines in the department of Mines and Industries, will first of all receive the said quantity of consignment to be shipped and carry out a due diligence with the buyer's end. This is usually done on an interview basis once they correspond together.'Positive results to this effect would give a go ahead to the deal'..
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals concentrated above background levels, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit. The grade of ore refers to the concentration of the desired material it contains. The value of the metals or minerals a rock contains must be weighed against the cost of extraction to determine whether it is of sufficiently high grade to be worth mining and is therefore considered an ore. A complex ore is one containing more than one valuable mineral.
Limonite is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as FeO(OH)·nH2O, although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide can vary quite widely. Limonite is one of the three principal iron ores, the others being hematite and magnetite, and has been mined for the production of iron since at least 400 BC.
Various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within Earth's crust. Ore-genesis theories vary depending on the mineral or commodity examined.
A native metal is any metal that is found pure in its metallic form in nature. Metals that can be found as native deposits singly or in alloys include antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, indium, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, rhenium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc, as well as the gold group and the platinum group. Among the alloys found in native state have been brass, bronze, pewter, German silver, osmiridium, electrum, white gold, silver-mercury amalgam, and gold-mercury amalgam.
Lateritic nickel ore deposits are surficial, weathered rinds formed on ultramafic rocks. They account for 73% of the continental world nickel resources and will be in the future the dominant source for the mining of nickel.
The Mining industry of Ghana accounts for 5% of the country's GDP and minerals make up 37% of total exports. Gold contributes over 90% of the total mineral exports. Thus, the main focus of Ghana's mining and minerals development industry remains focused on gold. Ghana is Africa's largest gold producer, producing 80.5 t in 2008. Ghana is also a major producer of bauxite, manganese and diamonds. Ghana has 20 large-scale mining companies producing gold, diamonds, bauxite and manganese; over 300 registered small scale mining groups; and 90 mine support service companies. Other mineral commodities produced in the country are natural gas, petroleum, salt, and silver.
Burundi is a producer of columbium (niobium) and tantalum ore, tin ore, and tungsten ore, and some deposits of gold which are designated for export. Burundi has resources of copper, cobalt, nickel, feldspar, phosphate rock, quartzite, and rare reserves of uranium, and vanadium.
The mineral industry of Russia is one of the world's leading mineral industries and accounts for a large percentage of the Commonwealth of Independent States' production of a range of mineral products, including metals, industrial minerals, and mineral fuels. In 2005, Russia ranked among the leading world producers or was a significant producer of a vast range of mineral commodities, including aluminum, arsenic, cement, copper, magnesium compounds and metals, nitrogen, palladium, silicon, nickel and vanadium.
The second-largest mineral industry in the world is the mineral industry of Africa, which implies large quantities of resources due to Africa being the second largest continent, with 30.37 million square kilometres of land.With a population of 1.4 billion living there, mineral exploration and production constitute significant parts of their economies for many African countries and remain keys to economic growth. Africa is richly endowed with mineral reserves and ranks first in quantity of world reserves for bauxite, cobalt, industrial diamond, phosphate rock, platinum-group metals (PGM), vermiculite, and zirconium.
The mining industry of Sierra Leone accounted for 4.5 percent of the country's GDP in 2007 and minerals made up 79 percent of total export revenue with diamonds accounting for 46 percent of export revenue in 2008. The main minerals mined in Sierra Leone are diamonds, rutile, bauxite, gold, iron and limonite.
A nickel mine is a mine that produces nickel. Some mines produce nickel primarily, while some mines produce nickel as a side-product of some other metal that has a higher concentration in the ore.
The geology of Benin in West Africa includes the north-northeast trending Proterozoic Dahomeyide orogen in the north and a range of Cretaceous to Holocene sedimentary rocks in the south, separated very closely by the 7th latitude. Neogene alluvial deposits extend across Benin’s northeastern border with Niger. In the Togo and Benin regions, the following rock types have been identified: metasandstones, schists, metasilexites, metasiltstones, metaconglomerates, metatillites, carbonate rocks or marbles, ultramafic rocks, metajaspillites, metahematites, quartzites, quartz schists, micaschists, gneisses, migmatites, amphibolites, granites, charnockites, eclogites, metabasalts, calc-silicate rocks and pyroxenites.
The mining industry of Madagascar is mostly on a small scale, centred mainly around remote locations with large mineral deposits. Mining potential is noted in industrial and metallic minerals, energy, precious and semi-precious stones, as well as ornamental stone. The mining sector was neglected by the government for decades prior to the mid-2000s. In 2013, the mining industry, a main source of foreign investment, was struggling due to "low metals prices and distrustful companies", attributed to a 2009 coup.
The mining industry of Liberia has witnessed a revival after the civil war which ended in 2003. Gold, diamonds, and iron ore form the core minerals of the mining sector with a new Mineral Development Policy and Mining Code being put in place to attract foreign investments. In 2013, the mineral sector accounted for 11% of GDP in the country and the World Bank projected a further increase in the sector by 2017.
The mining industry of Yemen is at present dominated by fossil mineral of petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG), and to a limited extent by extraction of dimension stone, gypsum, and refined petroleum. Reserves of metals like cobalt, copper, gold, iron ore, nickel, niobium, platinum-group metals, silver, tantalum, and zinc are awaiting exploration. Industrial minerals with identified reserves include black sands with ilmenite, monazite, rutile, and zirconium, celestine, clays, dimension stone, dolomite, feldspar, fluorite, gypsum, limestone, magnesite, perlite, pure limestone, quartz, salt, sandstone, scoria, talc, and zeolites; some of these are under exploitation.
The geology of Cameroon is almost universally Precambrian metamorphic and igneous basement rock, formed in the Archean as part of the Congo Craton and the Central African Mobile Zone and covered in laterite, recent sediments and soils. Some parts of the country have sequences of sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic as well as volcanic rock produced by the 1600 kilometer Cameroon Volcanic Line, which includes the still-active Mount Cameroon. The country is notable for gold, diamonds and some onshore and offshore oil and gas.
The geology of Malawi formed on extremely ancient crystalline basement rock, which was metamorphosed and intruded by igneous rocks during several orogeny mountain building events in the past one billion years. The rocks of the Karoo Supergroup and newer sedimentary units deposited across much of Malawi in the last 251 million years, in connection with a large rift basin on the supercontinent Gondwana and the more recent rifting that has created the East African Rift, which holds Lake Malawi. The country has extensive mineral reserves, many of them poorly understood or not exploited, including coal, vermiculite, rare earth elements and bauxite.
The geology of South Sudan is founded on Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks, that cover 40 percent of the country's surface and underlie other rock units. The region was affected by the Pan-African orogeny in the Neoproterozoic and extensional tectonics in the Mesozoic that deposited very thick oil-bearing sedimentary sequences in rift basins. Younger basalts, sandstones and sediments formed in the last 66 million years of the Cenozoic. The discovery of oil in 1975 was a major factor in the Second Sudanese Civil War, leading up to independence in 2011. The country also has gold, copper, cobalt, zinc, iron, marble, limestone and dolomite.
Nickel mining in Indonesia began with small-scale exploratory mining operations during the Dutch East Indies era and began to expand in the 1960s. Most of Indonesia's proven nickel reserves are located in the islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera, and the country has the largest annual production and reserves of nickel in the world.
The Weda Bay Industrial Park is a nickel mining and industrial park complex in Central Halmahera Regency, North Maluku, Indonesia. The Weda Bay Mine is now among the largest nickel mines in the world.