Belinga is a location in

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

with as yet unexploited

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

deposits. These ore deposits extend into neighbouring

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

and Congo.

Mining

The Belinga iron reserves were discovered in 1895.Douglas A. Yates, "Gabon", in ''Africa Yearbook: Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara 2006'' (2007), page 257. They are estimated to hold about one billion tons of iron ore. Iron ore mining was expected to start in 2011 but due to a lack of financing the project was currently on hold. Because of slowness in getting the project started, the Chinese rights may be in 2012 given to

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

. In 2023,

Fortescue Metals Group Fortescue is a global metal mining company headquartered in Australia. Fortescue focused on iron ore mining under the name of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) until July 2023. As of 2017, Fortescue is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the ...

started exporting 2 million tonnes of ore using road and rail transport to reach the port of Owendo.

Transport

A 237 km long railway branch line is proposed branching from Booue to enable these deposits to be exploited. As the tonneages hauled will be greatly increased, this line may also extend to a port at Santa Clara which would extend the railway to 560 km.China to build Gabon railway.(News)
/ref> The town is near the

Republic of Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

and

borders.

References

Geography of Gabon {{Gabon-geo-stub

Mining

Transport

See also

References