Cameroon Mining Permits: Types, Fees and How to Apply

A Cameroon mining permit is a title issued under the Mining Code (Law No. 2023/014 of 19 December 2023), and the Code names six mining titles: an artisanal licence, a semi-mechanised artisanal licence, a mining waste processing licence, an exploration permit, a small-scale mining permit and an industrial mining permit. A separate reconnaissance permit covers wide surface surveys, and quarries have their own set of licences. The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (MINMIDT) runs the process, and applications are deposited at the ministry, the departmental delegation or the commune, depending on the title. This guide sets out each title, who can hold it, the steps, the fees printed in the Code, the processing deadlines and the checks to make before you pay.

Many older guides still cite Law No. 2016/017 of 14 December 2016. That law was repealed, so use the 2023 text and the decrees issued under it. The French official terms are given once, in italics, so you can match them to forms and notices.

Which law applies to a Cameroon mining permit today

The Mining Code now in force is Law No. 2023/014 of 19 December 2023. Its last section repeals all contrary earlier provisions, naming Law No. 2016/017 of 14 December 2016 in the French text (FAOLEX, French text of the Code, Article 200). An English version is published on the Presidency website (Law No. 2023/014, English text), the French text is also on the African Mining Legislation Atlas, and the legislation is listed in the UNEP law database.

The Code is applied through implementing decrees signed in November 2024. The Ministry of Finance lists eight of them, among them the decree on how mining titles, permits and authorisations are issued and the decree on how mining operations are carried out (Ministry of Finance, list of Mining Code decrees, January 2025). Cameroon Tribune reported that further implementing texts were signed on 25 June 2025 and that MINMIDT published procedures and document lists for the research permit on 29 June 2025 (Cameroon Tribune, 1 July 2025). Check with the ministry before you apply, because texts and forms keep moving.

Cameroon mining titles at a glance

The Code names six mining titles (Section 11) plus a separate reconnaissance permit and quarry licences. Surveys that need no title are done by the State or with its authorisation. The table gives the main limits from the Code.

Sources for the table: Sections 23, 24, 29, 33, 35, 50, 53 and 28 of the Code (English text), and, where marked, the Chambers Mining 2026 guide for Cameroon. Durations for the artisanal, semi-mechanised and reconnaissance titles are set by decree, so confirm them with MINMIDT.

What each title allows

Prospecting and the reconnaissance permit

Older guides talk about an authorisation to prospect. Under the 2023 Code, early surface work is called reconnaissance: systematic surveys by geological or geophysical methods over large areas to find traces of useful minerals. It needs a reconnaissance permit (Section 16(3), Section 28). The permit is non-exclusive and cannot be transferred, pledged or farmed out, so it gives you the right to survey and set up appropriate facilities, not a claim on the ground (Sections 30 and 81). Another company can hold the same area. The data you collect is your lead, not your title.

Exploration permit

The exploration permit is the real entry ticket for a licence holder who wants exclusive rights. It is issued to a mining company to locate and evaluate deposits (Section 32). Grant is tied to a mining exploration contract between the State and the company, and the State takes part in the company’s board sessions as the contract sets out. You must start work within nine months, and send quarterly reports, a technical report and a financial report to the minister (Sections 36 and 38).

The permit gives exclusive rights to explore, to access and occupy the surface, and to remove rock or soil in quantities allowed by the approved work schedule. Precious and semi-precious substances are excluded from that right, and may leave the site only for analysis with express authorisation (Section 37). The holder may sell or pledge the permit, subject to State approval and a 10% capital gains tax on the gain (Sections 79, 82 and 86). If you drop the permit, your reports and studies pass to the public domain, and you cannot apply for the same site again yourself (Section 38).

Small-scale and industrial mining permits

A mining permit goes only to the holder of an exploration permit that has proved a deposit (Section 42). Before the permit is granted, a mining agreement between the State and the company is signed, and that agreement depends on classified and certified reserves (Section 41). The permit area must be one block entirely inside the exploration permit. A small-scale permit is granted by the minister and requires development to start within one year and mining within two. An industrial permit is granted by decree and requires development within two years and mining within five (Sections 49 to 54).

Artisanal and semi-mechanised licences

Artisanal mining is reserved for Cameroonian nationals who hold an individual miner’s card and an artisanal licence, and it is limited to a depth of ten metres (Sections 3 and 20). Semi-mechanised mining needs a licence held by a company under Cameroonian law whose majority shareholders are nationals, up to 21 hectares, and the State keeps a combined flat tax of 25% of gross production (Sections 24 and 25). These two titles are personal and cannot be sold, farmed out or transferred (Section 80). Producers sell to the single State marketing office (Section 115). For the licence side of small-scale work in other countries, see the guide to artisanal mining licences and small-scale permits.

Quarries

Sand, gravel, clay, laterite, kaolin, graphite and similar materials fall under quarry rules, with four types: family-owned, artisanal, public interest and industrial (Sections 59 and 61). An industrial quarry permit runs for up to five years, renewable in periods of up to three, and only Cameroonian companies with at least 35% national shareholders qualify (Section 73). Quarry exploration also falls under the reconnaissance permit regime.

Who can apply for a mining title in Cameroon

Any natural or legal person may carry out an activity governed by the Code, but with the exception of artisanal and semi-mechanised licences, only mining companies get a title (Section 16). The applicant must show technical and financial capacity. Under the November 2024 decree on issuing titles, the applicant must also keep a registered office or home address in Cameroon, and an application is inadmissible if the applicant:

• had a title withdrawn within the barred period,
• was convicted of fraud in the mining sector,
• is bankrupt or in liquidation,
• lacks the capacity for the planned work, or
• already holds five valid titles, permits or authorisations.

Source: Articles 9 and 14 of the decree on the issuance of mining titles, permits and authorisations, hosted on the government’s regulatory portal.

Foreign investors therefore work through a Cameroonian-law company. A licence holder from outside the country who wants to hold ground should take local legal advice on company set-up and on the shareholder rules for the specific title.

How to apply: step by step

1. Check the ground. The perimeter you ask for must not overlap another mining perimeter, or the application is inadmissible (decree, Article 8). Look at the cadastre map first (see the cadastre section below) and stay clear of protected zones and the 500-metre buffers around villages, roads, buildings, sacred sites and protected areas (Code, Sections 92 and 93).
2. Pick the title and the office. Exploration (research) permits and the two mining permits are deposited at the Ministry in charge of mines (decree, Article 12); the reconnaissance permit is issued by the Minister (Code, Section 28), so ask the ministry where to file it. Semi-mechanised licences and industrial quarry permits go to the departmental delegation. Artisanal authorisations go to the commune. Collector cards and marketing-office approvals go to the Société Nationale des Mines (decree, Article 12).
3. Prepare the file. The request is on the official form, in French or English, in three copies, with the original stamped at the current rate (decree, Articles 7 and 11). For an exploration or research permit the capacity papers include: professional references, the list of exploration work done in the last three years or binding agreements with strategic partners, a financing plan, a bank certificate showing own funds of at least 25% of the work budget with a statement from an approved Cameroonian bank, and the last three years of accounts (decree, Article 13). The same article of the decree also asks for a work programme with a matching expenditure statement, a Treasury receipt for the non-refundable study fees and the fixed duties, and a list of shareholders with their nationalities (Article 11).
4. Pay the duties and study fees. The Code makes survey and exploration fees non-refundable and sets fixed duties for each title (Sections 127 and 128). The amounts are in the next section.
5. Admissibility check and receipt. Staff check the file in your presence. If it is admissible, the cadastral system issues two receipts, one for you and one for the register. If it fails for a reason other than overlap or ineligibility, you have seven working days to fix it, then the application is rejected. The cadastre plots your perimeter on the mining map provisionally within two working days (decree, Article 17).
6. Examination and decision. Departmental and regional delegates give an opinion on the work programme, and the file goes to an inter-ministerial commission, or to the negotiation framework for mining agreements (decree, Articles 15 and 18). Rejection must be notified with its reasons (Article 19). For exploration, the Code adds the State exploration contract; for a mining permit, the mining agreement.
7. Publication. The grant or renewal of research and mining permits is published in the Journal officiel (the official gazette) and in a legal notices paper, in French and English (decree, Article 24; Code, Section 110).

Cameroon mining permit fees: the amounts printed in the Code

These are the fixed duties in Section 128 of the Code, in CFA francs (CFAF), as in the text signed on 19 December 2023. The Code says the rates are to be repeated in the Finance Law and annexed to the General Tax Code, so check the current Finance Law figure with MINMIDT before you budget.

Source: Section 128(2), Law No. 2023/014. Public interest quarries are exempt from these duties. Export of mineral substances carries a separate licence duty of CFAF 300,000.

Yearly area royalty on an exploration permit

Fixed duties are one-off. The area royalty is paid at the start of each financial year on the surface the title covers (Sections 129 and 130). For exploration permits it climbs with age, which pushes holders to drill or release ground:

As a worked example from the printed rates, a 100 km² exploration permit would cost 500,000 CFAF in grant duty and 500,000 CFAF in first-year area royalty, plus the non-refundable study fees, the guarantee deposit the regulations require, and your own work programme. The Code does not print the study-fee or deposit amounts, so ask MINMIDT for them. Other area rates are CFAF 10 per m² per year for an artisanal licence and CFAF 50 per m² per year for a semi-mechanised licence. Small-scale and industrial permits pay land concession rights per km² with minimum annual charges of CFAF 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 (Section 130).

Processing deadlines and renewal dates

The issuing decree sets mandatory examination periods counted from registration of the application (Article 26):

• 30 days for the reconnaissance permit, the artisanal authorisation, the artisanal quarry authorisation and mining-waste authorisation;
• 45 days to approve a transaction;
• 60 days for the semi-mechanised licence, the research (exploration) permit and industrial or public interest quarries;
• 90 days for the small-scale and industrial mining permits.

The authority may extend a period in writing by up to half the original length. The decree states that silence at the end of the period counts as a grant, and the cadastre registers the title on your request. Do not plan around that. Ask for the register entry in writing and keep your receipt.

Renewals have a hard cut-off. You must file before expiry: 90 days before for a research permit, 12 months before for a small-scale or industrial mining permit. Filing late counts as a rejection (Article 28). A renewal filed on time stays in force until the decision.

The Cameroon mining cadastre and portal

The cadastre (cadastre minier) is the registry that keeps, publishes and updates the map of mining titles, permits and authorisations (Code, Section 3). The territory is split into basic cadastral units that form a grid, and exploration perimeters are measured in those units (Section 19). Each application is entered in the register with the date and time of lodging, and no new application can be accepted over a perimeter with a pending one until that file is closed (decree, Articles 16 and 26).

On 30 September 2026 MINMIDT announced a digital cadastre platform built on ArcGIS and tied to the Geological and Mining Information System. It shows titles, their boundaries, status and holders, and flags overlaps with protected areas and international borders. Training sessions are planned (MINMIDT announcement). The viewer is at minmidt.cm/cadastre. The ministry site also lists the mining titles page, dated 22 March 2026. The announcement describes the platform as a way to read and process cadastral information online. Filing of applications is still described in the decree as a deposit at the ministry, delegation or commune, so treat the portal as your map check and your due diligence tool, not as an e-filing system.

For other countries, the cadastre portal guide by country compares how portals work, and the Nigeria mineral title guide and the Tanzania licence guide show how two other African systems handle online maps and applications. If you work across the border in the DRC, the French-language page on gold exploration in the DRC and the CAMI cadastre covers that registry, and the page on mining permits in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger is a French companion for the Sahel.

Royalties, State share and taxes

• Ad valorem royalty (Section 132): 8% on precious stones (diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire), 5% on precious metals such as gold and platinum, 3% on base metals and other minerals, 2% on dimension or ornamental stones, 10% on radioactive substances. It is based on the international market price of the substance and paid monthly.
• Quarries: an extraction tax of CFAF 200 per m³ for loose materials and CFAF 200 per tonne for hard stone.
• State shareholding (Section 47): a public body takes up to 10% of the shares of small-scale and industrial mining companies, without payment and without dilution. By mutual consent it can rise by a further 10% for small-scale and 25% for industrial mining.
• Production sharing (Section 48): the State share, negotiated in the mining agreement, ranges from 1% to 5% for precious and semi-precious substances and from 2% to 15% for other minerals.
• Semi-mechanised mining: the combined flat tax of 25% of gross production (Section 25).
• Capital gains: 10% on a sale of an exploration permit, calculated on the sale price minus your direct exploration spending (Section 86).
• Gold and diamonds: a duly authorised public body buys and markets gold and diamonds nationwide, and gold produced in Cameroon is exported refined and stamped (Sections 4 and 117).

Source for the list: Law No. 2023/014. Tax incentives for the exploration and production phases are listed in Part VIII of the Code, and Chambers reports a State equity stake of 10% that cannot be diluted.

Environmental approvals and land access

An exploration permit does not need the impact study at grant, but every mining title and quarry licence, with the exception of the artisanal licence and domestic artisanal quarries, needs an environmental and social impact assessment, a hazard and risk assessment, an environmental management plan and an emergency plan before it is granted (Section 100). Holders must restore and close the site, progressively, and the State may sell plant left behind (Sections 101 and 103). Operators must also carry civil liability insurance, except artisanal operators (Section 98).

Surface land is not part of your title. Once the pre-feasibility study is validated, the exploration permit holder can start the process to obtain the land needed for mining, which goes through expropriation in the public interest and a lease to the holder (Section 87). Holders must compensate landowners and neighbouring people for damage, with the amount fixed by agreement or by the State after an expert assessment paid by the holder (Sections 89 to 91). Any hole or excavation deeper than 20 metres must be declared in advance, and failing to declare it at least 30 days before work starts is an offence (Sections 105 and 175).

Who to contact

• MINMIDT, Yaoundé: the official site lists [email protected] and +237 222 221 670 (MINMIDT contact page). It also posts the procedures and the user guide (MINMIDT procedures), with a warning to learn the official procedures and avoid scams.
• Departmental and regional delegates of MINMIDT: handle the local steps for semi-mechanised and quarry files.
• The commune (mayor): receives artisanal authorisation files.
• Société Nationale des Mines (National Mining Company): receives collector card and marketing-office applications (decree, Article 12).

Common mistakes with Cameroon mining permits

• Applying over taken ground. An overlap makes the file inadmissible, and the file is held until the earlier application is settled. Check the map first.
• Using the 2016 law. Forms, deadlines and fees come from the 2023 Code and the 2024 decrees.
• No Cameroon address or weak capacity papers. A missing local address, or a bank certificate below 25% of the work budget, ends the file early.
• Mining under an exploration permit. Mining works by an exploration permit holder is a ground for withdrawal, and keeping extracted product without declaring it carries five to ten years in prison or a fine of CFAF 2,000,000 to 20,000,000 in the Code (Sections 170 and 178).
• Working without a title or selling outside the system. Unlicensed mining is punishable by two to five years in prison or a fine of CFAF 500,000 to 5,000,000, and possessing or transporting its product is punished too (Sections 176 and 177).
• Missing renewal dates. A late renewal request counts as a rejection.
• Ignoring buffers. Work within 500 metres of villages, roads, sacred sites or protected areas is barred (Section 93).
• Holding too many titles. A holder of five valid titles cannot file another.

Screen the ground before you pay the duties

The exploration permit duty, the yearly area royalty that climbs after year three, and your work programme are the money you commit first, so it helps to know whether the surface shows anything worth testing. A Farmonaut satellite mineral report screens a licence area for surface and near-surface mineral signatures, including gold, and is built for areas of at least 10 acres, with delivery in 5 to 20 business days. Satellites map surface signatures; drilling and sampling confirm. Results are exploration targets, not a JORC, NI 43-101 or SAMREC resource. See the sample exploration report for what the output looks like, and check your licence area to see how a screening starts from your polygon.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Check with the ministry before you apply.

Frequently asked questions

How many types of mining titles are there in Cameroon?

The Code names six mining titles: artisanal licence, semi-mechanised artisanal licence, mining waste processing licence, exploration permit, small-scale mining permit and industrial mining permit. A reconnaissance permit covers early surveys, and quarries have their own licences and permits.

How long does an exploration permit last?

It is granted for up to three years and can be renewed up to three times, each time for up to two years, so nine years in total. A holder who has found a deposit but cannot mine it in time can ask for a further two-year, non-renewable schedule change after a pre-feasibility study (Sections 33 and 34).

Can a foreigner get a mining permit in Cameroon?

Mining titles go to mining companies, with a registered office or address in Cameroon. Artisanal mining is for Cameroonian individuals, semi-mechanised mining needs a company with a majority of national shareholders, and quarry permits go to Cameroonian nationals or companies. Take local legal advice on company structure.

How long does the ministry take to decide?

The decree sets 30 days for a reconnaissance permit, 60 days for an exploration (research) permit and 90 days for small-scale and industrial mining permits, counted from registration, with a possible extension of up to half the period. Real timing depends on the commission, so ask the ministry for the status of your file.

Is there an online mining cadastre for Cameroon?

MINMIDT announced a digital cadastre viewer on 30 September 2026 at minmidt.cm/cadastre, showing titles, boundaries, status and holders. Under the decree, applications are still deposited at the ministry, delegation or commune and checked in your presence.

What royalty does Cameroon charge on gold?

The Code sets an ad valorem tax of 5% on precious metals including gold, based on the international market price. Gold is also subject to State purchase and marketing and must be exported refined and stamped, so confirm how your title handles sales before you plan production.