3 Million tonne Rutile deposits
(>95 % TiO2) in Cameroon

SERAK SA, the Cameroon based company that hold the mining property and mining rights to a near 3 million tonne rutile deposit located around the town of Akonolinga, central Cameroon, is selling 90 % of its equity.

In 1993 an international mining consultant auditing work up to that point wrote:

“With measured and indicated resources of 2.85 million tonnes of rutile and very considerable exploration potential, the Akonolinga project represents an important and probably, eventually world-class rutile producer.”

The rutile occurs in modern alluvial deposits that form river and stream flats.  Average grade is over 1 % Ti02 in the 40-1000µ fraction. Thickness of the  alluvium averages 2.5 m and clay overburden and topsoil total about 50 cm.

The deposit was intensively drilled and sampled by BRGM through the 1980s and early 90s.. A prefeasiblity study by BRGM in 1991, supposing a production rate of 30,000 t/y led to the conclusion that additional reserves needed to be identified and those already known, certified. Drilling through 1990 and 1991 lead to the identification of the additional reserves given herein.
A joint venture with CRL was terminated because rutile prices were stagnating in the 1990s and there was a crisis in Sierra Leone. Work in 1993 with CRL showed that with a larger production capacity of 55,000 t/y, financial viability was much improved and a tonne of rutile FOB Douala was estimated at about $260.

The reserve situation is 764 000 t rutile occurring in measured resources at a concentration of 1.35 % and 2,085,000 occurring in indicated resources in a concentration of 0.94 %.

Likely mining method is by bucketwheel dredge best suited for this type of shallow deposit with pre concentration on a floating barge with the concentrate pumped ashore for final separation.

Akonolinga is well located at only 125 km from Yaounde, the national capital which is in turn linked by 400 km of tarred road to Douala, the country’s main port. The country has been politically stable since independence from France and uses a CFA currency pegged to the French Franc and hence the Euro.

The Cameroon government has recently published a new national Mining Code putting the country on a par with other major countries in Africa with respect to foreign investment, government intervention, tax etc., as part of a commitment to promote the mining sector, which has hitherto been sluggish.

SERAK SA is held 52 % by BRGM and 48 % by the State of Cameroon. The whole of BRGM’s stake is for sale as is 38% held by the State of Cameroon that will retain a maximum of 10 %.

The archives concerning the project are held at BRGM France and at the Ministry of Mines, water and Energy, Yaounde, Cameroon. 

The current market value of the ore contained is roughly $1.5 billion. The shareholders of SERAK equity expected to commence negotiations for the sale at a sum significantly less than half of 1 % of this amount.