CAMEROON SHOULD TRANSITION FROM ILLEGAL MINING TO COOPERATIVE MINING

CAMEROON SHOULD TRANSITION FROM ILLEGAL MINING TO COOPERATIVE MINING

Illegal gold mining is destroying land, polluting rivers, exposing communities to mercury, encouraging unsafe working conditions, pushing children away from school, creating untraceable gold markets and depriving the State of important revenue.

But there is a better solution: organize local miners instead of only chasing them away.

Create legally recognized mining cooperatives of 25 to 50 Cameroonians.

Grant each cooperative a limited mining area: 0.5 km² for 25 members and up to 1 km² for 50 members.

Require approval from the village chief and/or competent local community authority before an application is submitted.

Empower the Regional Director of Mines to grant the Cooperative Mining Permit after verification.

Require every cooperative to sign strict environmental, safety and legal obligations.

Completely prohibit mercury, dangerous chemicals and child labour.

Allow only appropriate small-scale equipment such as shovels, pumps, sluice boxes, small trommels, small crushers and gravity concentrators.

Prevent cooperative permits from becoming disguised industrial mining operations.

Require miners to work only within approved coordinates.

Make land rehabilitation mandatory through the principle: Mine → Recover → Backfill → Restore → Move Forward.

Protect rivers, streams and other water bodies from contamination and uncontrolled sediment.

Require every cooperative to declare its gold production and maintain proper production records.

Require gold produced under the programme to enter the formal national market through SONAMINES and legally authorized channels, with weighing, certification, receipts and traceability.

Withdraw or suspend permits where cooperatives violate the law, use prohibited substances, employ children, operate outside their areas or refuse to restore the land.

The objective should not be to protect illegal mining. The objective should be to transform illegal miners into legal, responsible and productive citizens.

Cooperative Mining can create employment, protect family incomes, keep children in school, empower women and youth, restore destroyed land, protect water resources, reduce smuggling, increase traceable gold production, strengthen SONAMINES, improve State revenue and bring entire mining communities into the formal economy.

Cameroon does not have to choose between gold production, environmental protection and community survival. We can achieve all three.

ORGANIZE THEM. REGISTER THEM. LICENSE THEM. TRAIN THEM. PROTECT THE LAND. TRACE THE GOLD. BUILD THE NATION.

FROM ILLEGAL MINING TO COOPERATIVE MINING.

Cameroon’s gold should create prosperity for Cameroonians without destroying the land, water and communities from which that wealth comes.

Dr. David Makongo 

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