Government says underreported production and illegal exports may have cost the country billions in lost tax revenue….
The Cameroonian government has unveiled a sweeping crackdown on the country’s gold mining industry following the discovery of significant discrepancies between the amount of gold produced and what mining companies officially declared.
Authorities estimate that the illegal export of gold particularly to the United Arab Emirates has deprived the country of nearly 2 trillion CFA francs (about $3.5 billion) in tax revenue over the past five years.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Acting Minister of Mines, Fuh Calistus Gentry, said the government’s primary concern is not the theft of state-owned gold but the alleged under-reporting of production by some private mining operators.
According to him, the practice has significantly reduced government earnings from one of the country’s key mineral resources.
To address the problem, the government is introducing stricter oversight across the mining sector, including tighter inspections at mining sites, minimum gold delivery requirements, improved monitoring of ore extraction and recovery processes, and enhanced systems to trace gold production from source to market.
The authorities are also moving to tackle widespread licensing violations within the industry.
Fuh disclosed that more than 200 companies are currently operating without the required authorisation, while 137 cases have already been referred to the courts for legal action.
The government is equally targeting companies accused of abusing exploration licences by using them to conduct full-scale mining operations instead of exploration activities.
According to the minister, exploration permits are issued solely to enable companies to identify and evaluate mineral deposits and should not be used for commercial extraction.
Cameroon has increasingly turned to its vast mineral resources including gold, iron ore, diamonds and cobaltas part of efforts to diversify its economy. The country adopted a new mining code in 2023 to strengthen regulation of the sector, attract investment and increase government revenue from mineral exploitation.
