Assurance was given on Friday, 12 April 2013 to the Prime Minister, Head of Government by Mr. Giulio Casello, Chief Executive Officer of the Cam Iron/Sundace Resources Limited in an audience where the progress and future of the Mbalam iron ore mining project was discussed.
The Prime Minister was assisted by Louis Paul Motaze, Secretary General at the Prime Minister's Office, and Chairman of the Major Projects Committee. In this capacity, he personally leads negotiations between Sundance and Government.
Fabien Nkot, Chargé de Mission and member of the project Steering Committee and Attaché Ngo'o Cyrus, coordinator of the committee, also attended the audience. Serge Asso'o, Executive Director of Cam Iron, was part of the four-man delegation led by Giulio Casello to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Bruno Pennetier, Country Director of Cam Iron SA, also member of the delegation, told the press after the 30-minute audience granted that morning at the Prime Minister’s Office that, despite the withdrawal of the Chinese partner Hanlong, the Mbalam iron ore project has been faring well.
He continued by saying that what is important is that with the achievements of last year: the increase in reserves, the signing of the Mbalam iron ore mining agreement here in Cameroon, the obtaining of the mining permit in Congo, the project has been strong and so close starting mining activities. The most important thing is that the Chinese authorities trust the project and are always very interested in it.
He also explained that several assets in relation to the project are already set. This justifies the discussions with the new partners.
Government has given facilities to help Sundance and the other project partners to enable its rapid realization. To this effect, an agreement was signed on 29 November 2012 here in Yaounde between Government and Cam Iron Sundance Resources Ltd.
He reassured that the withdrawal of Hanlong will not impact the project, but will extend the initial deadlines,.
It should be noted that Cam Iron had eighteen months to complete the funding of the project as from the signing of the agreement in November 2012.
Although he is unhappy with the withdrawal, the Head of Government is aware of the viability of the project and has renewed his confidence in Cam Iron, which promises to do everything possible to progress very seriously in the upcoming months, by finding new partners, “relatively quickly”.
Due to its size, the Mbalam iron ore deposit is ranked second largest in Africa (after Guinea-Conakry) and 4th in the world.
In terms of investment, the project will cost $ 2,500 billion, producing 35 million tons of iron ore per year for 20 years and 3,000 direct jobs.
