Cameroon’s mines ministry said on Wednesday that an investigation has uncovered over 200 illegal artisanal gold mining companies, most of them foreign-owned.
The investigation was launched following major discrepancies between Cameroon’s official gold export figures and significantly higher import volumes reported by trading partners, especially the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Ministry, around 200 illegal mining companies have been identified in the East and Adamawa regions, more than 95% of which are foreign-owned.
A list released by the ministry shows that many of the companies are operated by Chinese nationals.
Authorities have ordered the firms to immediately stop all mining activities, but made no mention of sanctions or legal action against them.
The discrepancies were earlier highlighted in a 2023 report by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which was published in December.
Cameroon officially reported producing just 953 kilograms of gold that year, with only 22.3 kg exported through formal channels. However, importing countries recorded receiving 15.2 tonnes (15,200 kg) — nearly 680 times more than what Cameroon declared.
“This suggests that a large portion of the country’s gold, particularly from artisanal mining, bypasses official channels and is diverted into informal networks or smuggled abroad,” said researcher Aicha Pemboura in a March report on organised crime in Central Africa.
Despite the adoption of a new mining code in 2023, Pemboura noted that corruption and the influence of powerful elites continue to undermine enforcement efforts.
