Senior officials of a Chinese firm Sinosteel, which is carrying out the project, visited the mining sites said that exploration works are currently going on in Mongmamel some 60 kilometres from Kribi towards Campo to determine the amount of iron ore and its richness for imminent exploitation.

Sinosteel under its program China NCEII Iron Ore Exploration Project Management is currently digging and extracting samples of the mineral for studies.

Mr Tianwen Huang president and GM of Sinosteel said the visit was to appraise work on the project. Workers on the site told CT that they have been working there for over six months and that their work consists in detecting and extracting the mineral. They disclosed that already extracted quantity is packaged and sent abroad for proper study.

Mr Oscar Matip director of Mines and Geology in the Ministry of Industries Mines and Technological Development who accompanied the SINOSTEEL officials to the sites said the Chinese firm wants to confirm earlier diagnoses of the presence of minerals on the sites. He said that earlier studies showed that some 350 million tonnes of reserves were there and that the sampling work the Chinese firm is undertaking could also improve on earlier findings. He disclosed that the ongoing certification work on the site will permit them to determine how much of the mineral is there.

Mr Matip said that "This will be followed by an evaluation of the quantity of the reserve and then exploitation adding that it is only then that an exploitation contract could be signed between the extracting firm and the government of Cameroon.”

(Sourced from allafrica.com)