The government of Korea is finalising studies in view of setting up a national mineral resource research laboratory in Cameroon that will help the country explore its mineral potentials and mining companies to analyse their results as well as serve as a source of income for the government. A delegation of Korean mining experts is currently in the country for a proper study of the project, the site situation and infrastructure and how much it could cost to be build the laboratory.
The delegation yesterday December 15, 2010 held a working session with the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Technological Development (MINIMIDT), Fuh Calistus Gentry. Speaking during the audience, the leader of the delegation, Choi Jong Ho, Director of Energy, Climate Change and Environment Division in Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said such a laboratory will help the country to explore and analyse its mineral potentials so as to come up with development plans in the sector. “We are not only building a laboratory, but we will also train personnel from Cameroon. We will receive and train them on several sequences as well as send our experts to Cameroon to train people here on how to operate the research laboratory,” Choi Jong Ho, said. He specified that the training will take about two years and that everything being equal; the project will take off next year.
Visibly elated with the project, which he described as a new dawn for Cameroon’s mining sector, Dr. Fuh Calistus said the laboratory will help the country to make giant strides in exploring its mineral potentials. “We still have 60 per cent of our national territory in which we don’t know what is under. To do anything you need to send samples outside the country” he said. A procedure, which he added, is not only expensive, but also time-consuming. “Sometimes it takes months and it is very expensive to do that. So with this national laboratory, we are going to increase exploration for the rest of our national territory and companies doing exploration in Cameroon will, through this laboratory, develop their projects faster and it will cost less in terms of transport cost”, the Secretary of State said.
The delegation members later on yesterday visited some sites earmarked for the project and will today hold working sessions with officials of the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development and those of the Framework for Support and Promotion of Small-Scale Mining (CAPAM).
