Despite being a mineral rich country, Cameroon has only recently begun to investigate mining on an industrial scale.
Cameroon's undeveloped mineral resources include bauxite, cobalt, gold from lode deposits, granite, iron ore, nepheline syenite, nickel, and rutile.
[citation needed] Alluvial gold is artisanally exploited from stream gravels in parts of Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Central African Republic.
However, the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2002 estimate for total gold production from all four countries combined is less than 1,600 kilograms, or less than 50,000 ounces per year.
The portion of this yield from within a 300-km radius of the Geovic Project is likely on the order of 20,000 ounces per year, a relatively insignificant amount by international comparisons.
In 2019 Camrail and Caynon Resources were working on exploiting rich Bauxite deposits at Minim to feed the smelter at Edéa and for export.
Gold yielded an estimated 20000 kg in 2004 and was produced by small-scale artisan miners, mostly in the eastern part of the country.