Appointed as Minister of Mines in October 2015, Ernest Ngwaboubou has just had a brief experience of the realities in the mining operations in Eastern Cameroon.

Between the reduction of the quantities produced by the companies in order to decrease their tax duties, nightly gold panning to hide the quantities produced, clandestine mining, the destruction of the environment by the gold miners, etc. Minister Ngwaboubou got a long list of the problems plaguing mining operations in the richest region in ore of Cameroon.

Despite the previous numerous warnings as well as the cleaning operations in the mining industry in the Eastern region, Ernest Ngwaboubou was able to notice that operators with simple search permits fraudulently moved into full mining operation, and that the transfer of permits to expatriates for traditional mining which is solely allowed for nationals is still an ongoing practice. “There has been in the Eastern mining sector, it must be bluntly said, a sort of anarchy for some years now”, the Minister of Mines confided to the pro-government daily.

After reminding that Cameroon only has 5 operation permits in validity at the moment, Ernest Ngwaboubou announced that he would send a team on site in two weeks to clarify the quasi-chaotic situation in the mining industry in East Cameroon.

“With these conclusions, we will bring back order in the sector”, indicated the Minister of Mines, whose predecessors had also announced reorganisation measures which never really succeeded in reversing the trend noted in the mining sector in the Eastern region.