Mbalam is a place in
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 ...
near the southern border with the
Republic of the 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 ...
where there are significant deposits of iron ore. The mining company is
Sundance Resources Limited.
Namesakes
There are two other places in Cameroon with the same name.
Railway
A 510 km
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
railway connection to a
deepwater port is required to exploit these ore deposits efficiently. Several routes were planned using
Quantm Quantm is a software package, marketed as Trimble Quantm, that is used to design road alignments and railway alignments. The program performs an otherwise tedious and laborious task where an immense amount of data are involved and choices have to ...
software. The railway will start at an elevation of about 650m at the mine, proceed along a fairly level alignment for 350 km, drops steeply for 100 km down to the coastal plain, then traverses that plain for 50 km to the port. The gradients generally favour loaded trains.
In September 2010, Sundance Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with
CRCC China-Africa Construction Ltd, which outlined construction plans for a 490 km railway linking the planned iron ore mines to a proposed port near
Kribi
Kribi is a beach resort and sea port in Cameroon.
Location
The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan, Océan Department, South Province (Cameroon), South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies a ...
. Another Chinese company,
China Harbour Engineering Co Ltd
China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) is an engineering contractor and a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), providing infrastructure construction, such as marine engineering, dredging and reclamation, road an ...
(CHEC), will build the port.
A two-stage development of a mine, railway and port for the cross-border iron ore deposits in
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 is estimated to cost US$7.7 billion.
Traffic
The new railway is expected to carry 35 million tonnes of ore per year for 25 years.
See also
*
Railway stations in Cameroon
The list of railway stations in Cameroon includes:
Stations served by passenger trains
Towns served by rail
Existing
( gauge plantation railway)
* Limbe, Cameroon, Limbe - port, terminal, cement works
----
( gauge)
----
* Nkongsamba (W ...
References
East Region (Cameroon)
{{Cameroon-geo-stub