In need to help Cameroon increase the share of artisanal gold revenues in its economy, the EU launched May 28 in Yaoundé the second phase of the “Mining, Environment, Health and Society Project” -ProMess- that is expected to enhance mining governance in Cameroon through collective follow-up of mining activity and promotion of governance transparency.

In concrete terms, the project will improve populations’ skills in the sector and better inform them of regulations; combat fraud and corruption in the mining sector. It will also help artisanal miners (women and youth included) in the process of formalizing their activity and adopting good practices.

ProMess II is scheduled to last 4 years; it has benefited from XAF520 million from the EU and XAF50 million from NGOs Foder and Transparency International Cameroon which are entrusted with its implementation. The project covers the districts of Bétaré Oya, Garoua-Boulaï, Ngoura, Batouri, Ketté, Ouli, Kentsou, Yokadouma, Gari-Gombo, in the East region and the districts of Meiganga in Adamaoua.

During the project’s first phase, which covers the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2018, these same regions received about XAF260 million. Phase I raised awareness of more than 25,000 members of the mining communities on the dangers of mining, mine site rehabilitation, and child labor in mining operations.

Currently, Cameroon gold is mainly mined by small-scale artisans. In fact, according to the government, the estimate of small-scale artisanal mining produced about 16,653 kgs of gold between 2010 and 2015.

Gold mining in Cameroon can be traced back to 1930 during the colonial administration. Records show that when it reached its peak (in the 1940s), gold mining contributed about 20% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

After independence, political interference slowed down commercial mining in the country. Most of the gold was being mined by small-scale artisans and sold in clandestine markets. Today the small-scale artisanal mining contributes about 95% of all the gold mined in the country.

According to the government, Cameroon has about 140 identified gold deposits, majority of which are mined by artisanal miners.

But there are challenges.

Cameroon has struggled with how to manage the mining in the country, primarily related to taxation of the resource.

The government estimates than the majority of the gold currently being mined by artisanal miners is being smuggled out of the country by traffickers who sell it in other countries to avoid paying taxes.

The country is also struggling to manage its growing mining industry and finding a way to ensure that commercial mining operations also pay their share of revenue to the government.

Officials however say they have put new measures which will bring order to the country’s mining sector.

“Before I was born, villagers here were involved in artisanal gold mining but things have taken another turn with the Chinese, George Nabedja tells. Since they’ve arrived, we no longer have the possibility to wok in our own fields. Firstly, because we’ve been expropriated and secondly, no one in the village has the right to benefit from the Chinese economic fallout. Once, there were big trees here, it was all a dense forest. Today, it has become more like a savannah.“

In the town located over 400 km east of Yaoundé, residents also look at the past with envy. They regret how cohabitation with the mining companies has turned out.

“We no longer have the possibility to operate freely on our territory, today we are practically slaves of the Chinese who make our lives harder, Koumbo Seme Leonard confesses. We no longer have the possibility to do things as we want in the same way we were used to“.

Supporting local communities

The team of local NGO Foder has made a priority to report the cases of alleged land grabbing. However, they decry the authorities’ lack of involvement.

“Some community leaders have sometimes been imprisoned simply because they wanted to secure their living space. So it is to say that these Chinese companies are settling in these localities in a bit of an anarchic way. But one of the things that worsens the situation is the absence of a land use plan.“

The problem continues to worsen as inhabitants wait for the state’s intervention and clear land-use regulations. The Foder NGO has vowed to accompany the residents in their proceedings.

The document overlays the legal framework that governs the mining sector in Cameroon to data collected in the field through focus group discussions and interviews with mine operators, authorities, and communities. It found that the absence of the 2016 Mining Code Implementing Decree favors a state of anarchy within the sector.

The referred Mining Code was approved on December 14, 2016, to signal the government’s desire to improve governance and mining transparency. However, the implementing text of this new code has yet to be promulgated and until this happens, a 2001 law with a number of amendments and loopholes remains valid.

There is a lack of a clear definition of who should be the authority with the power to issue individual artisanal mining cards, authorizations and permits

According to Transparency International and FODER, there is, for example, a lack of clear definition of who should be the authority with the power to issue individual artisanal mining cards, authorizations and permits. This situation has created a cacophony between central and local authorities and has led to poor traceability of mining-related income.

Based on their findings, the NGOs believe that the absence of the code also promotes illicit practices such as influence peddling, favoritism, corruption and fraud, involving political elites such as MPs, senators, mayors, ministers, divisional officers and the military. 

The organizations were also made aware of recent reports related to the increased influence of the President’s office in the granting of mining permits. 

“Almost 95% of companies operating in the mining sector are of foreign nationality, in particular South Korean and Chinese. Behind each of these companies are believed to be Cameroonian personalities,” the report reads.

Lack of transparency

During the fieldwork, TI and FODER found that the majority of exploration permit holders do not meet the technical and financial requirements established in the law and, despite this, their permits are regularly renewed after they expire. 

Public disclosure on the conditions under which exploration permits are granted is a non-existing practice in the West African country.

When it comes to operating companies, the NGO researchers found that all the firms they held meetings with don’t have any authorization to carry out semi-mechanized artisanal mining, yet the nature and logistics of their activity require it. Countrywide, they believe that more than 60% of semi-mechanized operators work without any authorization. 

Night washing of products/minerals, fraudulent channelling and concealment of quantities are common practices

“Their only document is the telephone number of an influential person in the country who is ready to intervene in the event of an inspection,” the report states. “When questioned [about this], officials justify this situation by the lack of the implementing decree.”

The authors of the report also observed night washing of products/minerals, fraudulent channeling, concealment of quantities, and swindling of certain gendarmerie detachment officers and personnel linked to the Artisan Mining Support and Promotion Framework. 

When it comes to product marketing, they found that more than 60% of traders have no license or buying-and-selling office authorization, yet they practice in full view of state officials and supply informal channels, a practice that could jeopardize Cameroon’s participation in the Kimberley Process.

“Improving governance and transparency in the mining sector requires the establishment and application of a regulatory framework capable of ensuring optimal revenue collection and their equitable redistribution. It also involves the strengthening of environmental protection measures and the promotion of the involvement of all honest actors, in their respective domain, with regard to ensuring implementation, control and monitoring of activities in the mining value chain in Cameroon,” the report concludes.

“This gravel will be crushed, then sifted,” said the 45-year-old widow as she prepared to nurse her 8-month-old baby who had been strapped to her back. “If we’re lucky, we can find gold, but it’s difficult.”

In a good month, she earns around $2.80 for her efforts.

Maboue works in the Kaye quarry, a gold mine abandoned by Chinese miners in early 2017 after two years in operation. Around her, a hundred people noisily searched for the yellow metal in the pits in Ngoe Ngoe, a village in East Cameroon with about 2,600 inhabitants.

Women hauled the earth, crushed the gravel and tended to the mechanized pumps that keep the holes from filling with water. Women and children collected the gravel from the muddy waters.

Last year, Maboue nearly lost her life when a hole collapsed at another open-air mine near Kaye where she was planning to collect gold. She takes these risks to feed her children, she said.

“If I do not do that, how are we going to live?” she asked. “Since the death of my husband, I am the father and mother of the house.”

In that accident, nine prospectors were buried under almost 33 feet of earth in the mine excavated by Lu and Lang, a Chinese mining company banned from operating in Cameroon in April because it lacked a license.

The Ngoe Ngoe village leader, Yaya Moussa, remembered the tragedy.

“The Chinese arrived with [Cameroonian] law enforcement to drive the villagers out of the mine sites to better exploit our resources,” he explained. “So the villagers were forced to come in the night, in the absence of the Chinese, to extract gold and find food for their families. It was during one of these nocturnal outings that the earth fell on them.”

Sidonie Maboue, 45, a widow and mother, picks up small rocks from a mine site abandoned by Chinese miners. These pebbles are later crushed and sieved to collect gold.

Credit:

Christian Locka/PRI

Cameroonian law only permits local artisanal miners to search for gold using pans and other rudimentary equipment. But in recent years, Chinese operators who practice semi-mechanized artisanal exploration — including mechanical shovels and loaders, machines and chemicals that wash the gravel and other approaches — have altered the landscape significantly.

Local elites in Cameroon have partnered with the Chinese miners, according to the Center for Education, Training and Support for Development Initiatives in Cameroon, an NGO based in Yokadouma.

“They [the elites] are collecting photocopies of ID cards from villagers on the pretext of wanting to bring in companies that will provide water, electricity and jobs to the village,” said Victor Amougou, the center’s coordinator. “With 10 photocopies, this elite can obtain 40 artisanal mining authorizations equivalent to 40 hectares of land.”

Once the local Cameroonian obtains permission to mine, Amougou said, he or she signs a contract with a Chinese operator to run the mine. The Chinese, in turn, bribe mining authorities and other officials so they can begin work.

The law also states that mining operators must close their holes after completing their digs. Chinese companies usually abandon their giant pits, leaving behind dangerous areas where people and domestic animals might fall and drown. The Chinese companies also pollute rivers with their chemicals and mining runoff, said Moussa.

Last year, 50 people died in abandoned open mining holes in the Ngoura, Bétaré Oya and Ngoe Ngoe localities in eastern Cameroon, according to the calculations of the Forests and Rural Development, a Cameroon-based environmental nonprofit. About 250 mining sites opened between 2012 and 2014 have not been filled, the group added.

“It’s been a while since the Chinese entered my field and started mining gold without my advice,” said Philiphine Boh, a farmer and mother of five who said Chinese miners had destroyed her land. “The Chinese told me that it is the authority that sent them to exploit gold and that they will give me $130. I said that this money is insignificant for a field of one hectare that they spoiled. I have nothing left.”

This mining site in Ngoe Ngoe Village, East Cameroon, was abandoned by Chinese mining operators. Nine villagers seeking gold at night died there last year.

Credit:

Christian Locka/PRI

Locals rarely gain much from the Chinese investment in their region, others added.

“When the Chinese saw that a Nagbata [an artisan miner in the local language] discovered gold, they chased everyone from the quarry ” said Mahamadou Abdoulaye, 42, who holds a card entitling him to artisan mining. “The government must intervene because these Chinese are threatening us.”

Cameroonian government mining officials said they are trying to address the situation by using drones to investigate claims of other illegal mines, according to two officials who asked to remain anonymous because they did not have permission to speak to the press. They also said Lu and Lang did not have permission to work in the country.

Lu and Lang did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, the precedent was set more than a decade ago: Semi-mechanized artisanal mining was conducted for the first time in Cameroon in 2007 when the government requested that a South Korean company, C&K Mining, rescue 13 tons of gold that was likely to be washed away as officials pumped water into the impoundment behind Lom Pangar Dam in eastern Cameroon.

The authorities conceded the move would violate mining laws but said the situation was an emergency. The move served as a precedent for Chinese companies to engage in semi-mechanized artisanal mining.

Amougou and others said Lu and Lang is now operating a mine in Colomine in eastern Cameroon.

“The mining sector is a mafia,” Amougou said. “This crime does not benefit Cameroon or Cameroonians, perhaps an elite who would have received 5 to 10 million CFA francs [$9,376 to $18,755]. It’s shocking.”

A crowd of vulnerable people, such as children and pregnant women, glean the gold residues that may have escaped from this mine operated by a Chinese firm. The activity here is dangerous particularly for women.

Francois Mbembi has been digging gold for 14 years. He is very familiar with the risks here.

“As soon as the mercury enters the women’s bottoms. it causes damage. Indeed it scratches a woman’s body, and not only the women, we men too; and down there at the level of the women’s sexual organs, it causes problems” Mbembi explained

Among the goldpanners in Kambele 3, are many who have had what they call “the wound” on their private parts.

“Where the mecury exposure occured here,, we began to itch when we work in the water sometimes; it hurts, even at home, down there it makes wounds, it makes itching and when you scratch it hurts. The others often go to the hospital. Recently, it was said that it had eaten away at a woman’s vagina and into her belly. She went to the hospital, and that was the next thing I heard” one of the female gold miners said.

At the Batouri Catholic Hospital, Dr. Bethsalel Ndifo is one of the regulars for patients with vaginal lesions. Over time, he says, he realized that most of these patients had worked in the mines and immediately made the connection to mercury, which is used here by almost all the large-scale miners to facilitate the separation of the gold from the tailings.

“If it is true that mercury can cause lesions when ingested through the skin and digestive tract, it is also true that if there is contact at the genital level, since the woman is immersed in water containing mercury during this work, it is understandable that the sex and reproductive system, especially the vagina, which are also exposed to this liquid containing mercury, can get damaged” Dr. Betsalel Ndifo (General practitioner, Catholic hospital complex of Batouri)

Since December 2018, Cameroon has been a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury- a convention that commits states to reduce or even eliminate this product from the artisanal gold mining process. Yet in this mining town, the presence of the product is far from being eliminated.

In eastern Cameroon, thousands of children risk their health at makeshift mines. Thanks to the EU-supported project Promess2 in Cameroon, 32 ‘Comité de veille citoyenne’ were set up to raise awareness in communities on illegal mining and child labour. As a result, parents took the initiative to set up 4 schools to ensure their children could have an education. Up to 265 students received basic education instead of working in mines.

Two child miners’ accounts of their experience in Yassa, Cameroon

“Since I was five, I have been digging gold in the Yassa mine with my parents. My parents and I were made aware of the importance of school for a long time. Since I went back to school, I have good grades, especially in science, dictation and mathematics. Today, I try to convince my friends who are still in the camps to come to school, especially to avoid death in the mining holes. I tell them that with school, they will have the opportunity to learn new things that will allow them to become a doctor, a teacher and even sell gold at good prices without being cheated by gold buyers.”

– Marceline, 10 ans, Yassa, Cameroon.

“Before, I had never known the road to school. After these sensitisations, I kept asking my parents to send me to school because I also wanted to find out. Finally, in November 2020 they agreed. I really like the science and French classes, and I get very good grades. Today, thanks to the school, I can already express myself better in French. In the future, I would like to work in the army or in the government. I still have a lot of friends in the mining camps. Every time we play, I keep reminding them that in gold mining, they can die from rockslides and even from mercury. I hope that next year they will be able to understand and follow me. Thanks again to FODER and the European Union.”

– Pierre, 12 ans, Yassa, Cameroon.