Afferro Mining (LON:AFF) this morning described metallurgical result from its Ntem deposit in south-west Cameroon as “excellent”.

The group said they highlight the project’s potential as low cost operation with the capacity to deliver a “highly marketable iron ore product”. It is currently preparing to produce a mineral resource estimate, which should be complete by the end of the first half.
The data reveal the Ntem produces a high-grade concentrate in the range of 65.2-68.2% when ground to between 75 and 150 micrometres. There was “excellent” mass recovery of 46.7% and 81.6% at 150µm.
Davis tube tests showed that an average 81.7% of the iron is present as magnetite.
Chief executive Luis da Silva said: “Ahead of the Mineral resource estimate, these excellent metallurgy results highlight the potential for a low-cost mining operation at Ntem, delivering a highly marketable iron ore product.”
Located only 80 kilometres from the deep-water port being constructed south of Kribi, Afferro believes the economics of a small-scale operation at Ntem could be “very exciting”.
“We have now completed the first two phases of drilling at Ntem and we remain on track to complete the mineral resource estimate and the infrastructure scoping study results during the second quarter,” da Silva said.
“We believe that Ntem could add significant value to our portfolio of assets, providing a potential low capex opportunity to enter early stage production generating cash flow to support our strategy to bring the large-scale Nkout iron ore project to production.”
At 2.5bn tonnes, Nkout is a monster iron ore deposit, which is located around 300 kilometres from export facilities. As such it will require huge investment and infrastructure such as rail line, which is three to five years away from being built.
Last month the group received a bid approach from IMIC (LON:IMIC), which values Afferro at between 100 and 140 pence a share.

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MTN Cameroon has officially opened two new service centres in the towns of Kousseri and Douala.

The MTN Kousseri Service Centre aims to offer subscribers of Kousseri more personalized service, Biztech reported.

They will no longer have to travel a long distance to go to the MTN Service Centre in Maroua.

The Douala-based MTN VIP Bonapriso Service Centre, which was commissioned in January, receives the company’s VIP customers.

Two new service centres will also be opened in Douala in the next few weeks.

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MTN will go live with its bouquet of cloud services aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this month, following a trial period in six of its main markets across Africa, the company said on Tuesday.

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Telecommunications group MTN is set to offer a new grouping of information and communications technology (ICT) cloud services after a six-country trial targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) proved successful.

MTN Cloud would be launched in Ghana and Nigeria on April 10, followed by Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda and South Africa later in the year.

The operator launched the MTN Cloud pilot project in December last year, becoming the first mobile network operator in Africa to adopt the cloud service brokerage model, said MTN Group enterprise business unit executive Farhad Khan.

“There is great appetite for ICT solutions that are relevant, customised and affordable. SMEs are looking to technology service providers such as MTN to bring them world-class tools that improve their business efficiencies,” he said.

MTN Cloud offered several services, including the centralisation of access to services where MTN would act as the single point of contact for customers.

The trial had offered access to email and collaborative software Office Desktop; back-up service Mozypro; on-demand video conferencing application Dialcom; antivirus and antispam security software McAfee; human resources, accounting, finance and sales force automation software Averiware; customer relations management tool Microsoft Dynamics CRM; and staff and crossfunctional collaborative tool Microsoft SharePoint.

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Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa. (Cameroon News)  - The 17th International Conference on Cocoa Research has continued today in Yaoundé, with scientists presenting their finding on how to increase production by reducing pest, disease and post harvest deficit. Yesterday the researchers had a field trip to cocoa experimentation farms at Mengang in the Center Region.

The production and experimentation center of SODECAO located at about 85 kilometers from Yaoundé on the Yaoundé- Akonolinga road was established in 1979 on the forest of about 1,500 hectares of land. It is a center specialized in the production of selected cocoa seeds destined to cocoa farmers for the creation of their own cocoa plantations.

With the technical collaboration of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), SODECAO introduced several plots of seedlings and experimental plantations like seed gardens some are already over 30 years of age. Experimental plots, wood gardens, cocoa wood gardens and cocoa experimentation and demonstration plantations on 100 hectares and orchard plantation and a farm plantation.

The Mengang Center employs 62 people in five sections. There is a section in-charge of the creation and expansion of the seed fields, the section in-charge of the rehabilitation and maintenance of seed fields, the section which is in-charge of nurseries and two other sections in-charge of creation and expansion of wood gardens and experimental and demonstration plantations.

At the end of their visit yesterday we asked Prof. Paul Hartley a lead researcher from the University of Reading in North America who expresses his point of view about the experimentation farms used by Cameroonian researchers:

Very impressive. It showed how research services in Cameroon are working to help the cocoa farmer by producing appropriate seeds of good varieties. Giving the farmers the sort of seeds that they want is one of the most important things and there was clear evidence there of the efforts that they are making to produce seed gardens to produce the right seed for farmers in Cameroon. So that was very good.

Girl Enjoying a Chocolate bar

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The 17th International Conference on Cocoa Research has continued in Yaoundé with participants listening to presentations on ways production can be made more profitable.

Some 160 scientific papers on areas such as handling, post production, deficit, pests, diseases and climate change have been scrutinized by researchers from some of the world’s best research institutes.

Focus at the conference is on small and medium-sized cocoa farmers which accounts for 95 percent of the world’s cocoa

cocoa beans from cocoa tree in cameroon africa

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Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa. (Cameroon News)  -  Sector operators in the extractive industries have been called upon to cooperate with government in efforts to ensure better transparency in the sector. The call was made today by the Minister Delegate in the Minister of Finance Titti Pierre during an extractive industries awareness campaign in view of re-consigning the 2009-2010 report on extractive industries operation in Cameroon.

Cameroon joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in 2005 in efforts to foster better governance practices in the sector.

Cameroon joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2005 in view of ensuring that there is greater transparency and accountability in the management of the country’s natural resources. And indeed much ground has been covered according to committee member

Since 2005 we’ve prepared three consolidation reports. By consolidation report I mean we have contracted auditing firms in the national firms to get disclosures of resources that government has received from companies and then to get facts and figures about what companies declared they paid to government and these figures have been compared and discrepancies explained and we have gone public reinstitution of these issues.

The merits of the EITI could be fundamental to the enhancement of a democratic culture in Cameroon.

We stated to get a lot when people know that there is accountability within the system and so we start to attract investments coming into this country if get compliant by August 2013.

Companies involved in extractive work have traditionally shrouded their operations in controversy but there is now a rising will to conform.

If we did not get through the validation one of the reasons was that companies drag their feet in participating in the process and so the government took a commitment to companies to commit themselves to the process otherwise they’ll risk some coercive measures as you would see probably from tenor that has come here that the companies are decided on real participation so that we get validated by mid-2013.

Sector operators are basically meeting in Yaoundé in an awareness campaign in view of reconciling and ultimately validating the 2009-2010 report.

Transparency in the Extractive Industries has been described as a major booster to investment in Cameroon. The Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Finance Titti Pierre was speaking today in Yaoundé while opening a workshop to sensitize entrepreneurs involved in the extractive industries on the need to be more transparent in line with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which Cameroon joined in March 2005. So far three reports on what government says it received from extractive industries and what the companies declare they handed over to government had been published.

iroko tree (Hardwood) – West African Iroko tree

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Yaounde, Cameroon, Africa. (Cameroon News) – The 75th General Assembly of the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries (COPAL) has ended in Yaoundé with participants resolving to reactivate national commissions for the promotion of domestic consumption of cocoa products.

The resolution was arrived at as a measure to increase cocoa prices that have remained low due to increased production without a corresponding rise in demand.

Africa produces 75 percent of the average 4 million tons of grown in the world annually but consumes only three percent.

After the 75th General Assembly of COPAL and celebrations marking the organization’s 50th anniversary, Cameroon will as from next Monday play host to the International Conference on Cocoa Research.

cocoa beans from cocoa tree in cameroon africa

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Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News)  -  Cameroon is today playing host to activities marking the 50th year anniversary of the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries (COPAL). And exhibition of products made of cocoa and the production and processing potential of cocoa-producing countries is going on at the Yaoundé Multi Sports Complex.

The Secretary General of COPAL Ivorian born Nanga Coulibaly said that the major achievement is that COPAL has succeeded to maintain cocoa prices at a reasonable level despite the global economic crisis. The 50th anniversary of COPAL comes after the 75th General Assembly of the Alliance that ends later today in Yaoundé.

Activities marking the 50th anniversary of the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries (COPAL) have been organized in Yaoundé with representatives from member countries present.

There are exhibitions of cocoa and products made from cocoa at the sports complex in Yaoundé.

COPAL was created by cocoa-producing countries to solve the problems the sector encounters.

Fifty years on, what have been the achievements and challenges of the organization?

The first success, the Alliance of Cocoa Producing Countries (COPAL) boasts of is that it has successfully made the sector sustaining for 5 million cocoa farmers.

The Secretary General of COPAL Nanga Coulibaly of Côte d’Ivoire nationality says they have also maintained prices at good levels despite economic difficulties.

Paul Nanga Coulibaly: One measure of achievement is to bring the scientists together, to let the people know the value of cocoa, to bring the producer together and make supply at the same level of the demand because if the supply is more than the demand the price can fall.

He also congratulated researchers for proving that black cocoa consumption can improve the health of the people even if medical experts aren’t quite ready to recommend cocoa supplementation in the treating high blood pressure.

We need to consume cocoa to fight disease and cardiovascular diseases and even malaria.

But for a 50-year old organization to succeed in assembling just 10 of 50 cocoa producing countries sounds not good enough. Nanga Coulibaly sees no problem in that.

The 10 countries their production is more than 75 percent of the world cocoa production.

There are however challenges.

 Produce good quality domestic consumptions will be higher.

The 50th anniversary of COPAL is one out of three major cocoa events organized in Cameroon. There is also the 75th General Assembly of COPAL and the International Conference on Cocoa Research to kick off next Monday.

cocoa beans from cocoa tree in cameroon africa

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Oil giant Shell is due to appear in a Dutch court to face charges of polluting Nigerian villages in the Niger Delta Region.

The case is being brought by four Nigerian farmers and the Dutch branch of campaigners of Friends of the Earth.

It is the first time a Dutch multinational is being put on trial in its civil court at home in connection with damage caused abroad.

Shell insists it has been unable to clean up the spills due to insecurity.

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