(Business in Cameroon) – The first iron ore exports from the Mbalam mine, initially planned for late 2025, are now expected during the first quarter of 2026. Cameroon Mining Corporation, the concession holder of the deposit located in the East region near the Congolese border, plans to move more than 80,000 tons of ore to the deep-water port of Kribi by March 2026.
In the initial phase, transport will be carried out by road through 2029 using trucks with a net axle load of 75 tons. This road-based system is meant to allow shipments to begin before the dedicated rail and port infrastructure is fully operational.
A processing plant still under construction
According to Cameroon Mining Corporation, the revised schedule is directly tied to construction of the Mbalam processing plant. The facility, being built on a five-hectare site about one kilometer from the mine, is currently 30% complete.
Work—slowed by bad weather—includes the ore unloading point, installation of large-scale screens and conveyors, and construction of the plant platform. The company expects to complete the site in February 2026 and begin ore processing in March. This phase will mobilize more than 140 workers, including 70 young people recruited locally in Mbalam and nearby communities.
Progressive increase in export volumes
The operating plan calls for annual output of up to 10 million tons of iron ore between 2026 and 2029. During this period, volumes will be hauled by road to the port of Kribi and loaded onto vessels with capacities ranging from 70,000 to 150,000 tons. This logistics setup is explicitly designed as a stopgap pending completion of the dedicated railway line and the mineral jetty at Lolabé.
In a second phase, from 2030 to 2050, exports are expected to reach 25 million tons per year, supported by the Mbalam–Kribi rail corridor. The broader development falls under a public-private partnership to transport up to 100 million tons of ore per year from deposits across the region. Part of the volumes will come from the Avima, Badondo, and Nabeba mines in northwestern Congo, which are expected to use Cameroon’s rail network for export.
A strategic deposit with major fiscal potential
The Mbalam mine covers 768 km² and holds estimated reserves of more than 2 billion tons of iron ore, including nearly 200 million tons of high-grade direct shipping ore (DSO).
The mining convention was awarded in March 2022 for a 50-year period to Cameroon Mining Corporation, the local representative of a consortium of Chinese state-owned companies. The company also has a partnership agreement with Bestway Finance LTD to finance construction of the rail and port infrastructure associated with the project.
“The project is expected to operate through 2050, with more than 500 million tons extracted and more than $3 billion in fiscal and parafiscal revenue generated for the state, along with major spillover effects for the national and subregional economy,” the company says. This represents about CFA1,690 billion in potential fiscal and parafiscal revenue, based on an exchange rate of about CFA563.5 per dollar in December 2025.
Ludovic Amara
