MINTA’S 8,800 KM² MINING FOOTPRINT: CAMEROONIANS DESERVE FULL DISCLOSURE

Lion Rock Minerals Limited is an Australian company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the symbol ASX: LRM. Through its Cameroonian interests and subsidiaries, it is exploring for rutile, monazite, zircon and rare-earth minerals around Minta in Cameroon’s Centre Region.

According to Lion Rock’s own public information, the Minta project comprises 18 granted exploration permits and three additional permits under application, covering an enormous combined area of approximately 8,800 km².

This is not one 8,800 km² licence, but the combined footprint remains extraordinary and demands immediate public scrutiny.

Cameroonians, particularly the inhabitants and traditional custodians of Minta and the surrounding communities, deserve clear answers:

Who legally owns Lion Rock’s Cameroonian subsidiaries? Who are their shareholders, directors, beneficial owners and politically exposed local partners?
What are the names of these subsidiaries? What percentage is controlled by Lion Rock, Cameroonian investors or State institutions?
Who granted the 18 exploration permits, and on what dates? Were they issued through a transparent and competitive process?
How did one corporate group obtain such an enormous combined exploration footprint? Were the permits divided among related companies to avoid acreage limitations?
Are all these permits valid and compliant with Cameroon’s Mining Code? Have the annual surface fees, work obligations and environmental requirements been fulfilled?
Were the traditional authorities, landowners and affected communities properly identified and consulted? Where are the consultation reports, community agreements and records of free, prior and informed participation?
What protection exists for customary land rights, farms, forests, sacred sites, rivers and community livelihoods?
What does Cameroon receive in return? What will be the State’s carried interest, royalties, taxes, surface fees, production entitlements and local-development contributions?
Will the rutile, monazite, zircon and rare-earth minerals be processed in Cameroon, or exported in raw form?
Where is the plan for local employment, technology transfer, mineral processing and Cameroonian participation in the value chain?
Does the proposed foreign processing arrangement mean that Cameroon will export strategic minerals while the industrial jobs, technology and greater profits are created abroad?
Have any commercially mineable resources or reserves actually been established? Promising exploration results must not be presented as an operating mine or a completed economic discovery.

Let us be clear: granting a single foreign-controlled corporate group access to a combined mineral area of approximately 8,800 km² does not look like ordinary exploration management. It resembles a massive foreign occupation of Cameroon’s mineral territory.

A normal prospecting area should be reasonably limited—often around 400 to 500 km²—with strict work obligations and mandatory relinquishment of substantial acreage, including at least 50% surrender, before any progression toward exploitation.

Cameroon’s mineral resources cannot be warehoused by foreign junior companies for stock-market promotion and future speculation. Exploration rights must not become instruments for locking up entire districts while communities remain uninformed and the country receives little more than promises.

The 8,800 km² footprint is, by itself, a serious mining-governance scandal requiring an immediate independent review. Until the ownership structure, permit history, community consultations, fiscal terms and domestic-processing commitments are publicly disclosed, no exploitation permit should be issued.

Minta is not an empty space on a foreign investor’s map. It is the ancestral land, livelihood and inheritance of Cameroonian communities.

Cameroon’s minerals belong first and foremost to Cameroon and its people.

— Dr. David Makongo

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