Minim-Martap Industrial Bauxite Exploitation Project: Annual Production of Five Million Tons

Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on behalf of the President of the Republic, laid the foundation stone for the Minim-Martap Industrial Bauxite Exploitation Project on September 24, 2025. The company with the exploitation rights is CAMALCO, which obtained its industrial exploitation rights on September 2, 2024. From feasibility studies, the site in Martap, located some 126km from Ngaoundéré, Adamawa Region, contains an estimated 99 tons of bauxite, consisting 51 per cent in aluminum and 2.4 per cent in silisium. Annual industrial production is estimated at five million tons of bauxite per year for a period of 20 years. The project, it is said, will lead to the construction of a 45km road linking the mining site to the rail station of Makor. Twenty-two locomotives and 560 wagons will be acquired for transportation of the mineral resources and the rehabilitation of railway infrastructure for a distance of 600km between Makor and Douala, of which a budget of FCFA 4 billion 500 million is already available. Other benefits include the construction of a bauxite refinery at the Douala Deap Sea Port and a transformation unit of bauxite to aluminum. It is said it will be the first bauxite refinery in Africa and the objective is to create a complete cycle in bauxite transformation. From explanations, once the refinery transforms the bauxite to aluminum and ALUCAM would then transform the aluminum to physical material for easy local use. It will limit the importation of aluminum into the country for industrial and domestic use.

Several social projects are said will be carried out by the exploitation company, CAMALCO, notably the construction of a reference hospital Martap, an ultra-modern market and the recruitment of youths of the locality within the framework of the execution of the project which is said would generate 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. A quota of taxes relating to the exploitation of the site will be paid to decentralised local authorities. In...